BOORS 

*  IN  THE 

;WAR 

'ROMANCE 


ST 


LIBRARY 

;,'^|WAR 

IK..-..  

^SERVICE 

*■  i»    'f 


THEODORE 
WESLEY  KOCH 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Bf-^Ao     Vl^ 


BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

THE  ROMANCE  OF 
LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


% 


http://www.archive.org/details/booksinwarromancOOkochiala 


■^ 


w 

\ 

7 

1 

iVfl 

I 

^  V 

i 

^ 

i 

'1 

i 
I- 

i 

c^ 

^ 

J 

i 

^^L 

^4 

M 

'  ,  >  ^ 

^^GN^;;^P^ 

OrtT"      .> 

^^Sfe^^"*^ 

^^■■'- 

---ir  ^^        ^ 

y 

m 

■^"■.' 

4! 

^"^^ 

^; 

■s^ 

S!^ 

^ 

ri 

*  '^^ 

^ 

ffij^^ 

,'- 

- 

M 

4; 

FROM  A  POSTER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 
LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE 


BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

THE  ROMANCE 
OF  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE 

BY 

THEODORE  WESLEY  KOCH 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

THE  BIVERSIDE  PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE 

1919 


COPTRI6RT,  I918  AND  1919,   BY  THKODORE  WESLEY  KOCH 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


W<5  Ks 


TO 

DR.    HERBERT   PUTNAM 

LIBRARIAN   OF   CONGRESS   AND 

GENERAL   DIRECTOR  A.L.A.   LIBRARY   WAR   SERVICE 

BUT   FOR   WHOM   THESE   STUDIES   WOULD 

NEVER   HAVE   BEEN  WRITTEN 


867911 


PREFACE 

The  present  volume  is  an  amplification  of  the  first 
part  of  my  War  Libraries  and  Allied  Studies.  It  is, 
however,  more  than  a  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of 
"War  Libraries"  with  the  omission  of  the  "Allied 
Studies."  As  the  earlier  book  was  written  during  the 
war,  before  some  of  the  striking  features  of  library 
war  service  were  fully  developed,  and  there  were  but 
scanty  reports  of  results  obtained  along  certain  hues, 
it  was  necessary,  with  the  fuller  information  now  at 
hand,  to  rewrite  large  portions  of  the  earlier  account. 
Instead  of  one  chapter  on  the  work  overseas,  it  is 
now  difficult  to  do  justice  to  it  in  five  times  the  space. 
The  Armistice  released  much  material  from  the  war 
zones.  Not  only  were  the  returned  prisoners  of  war 
free  to  talk  of  their  experiences,  but  the  lifting  of  the 
military  censorship  gave  us  the  benefit  of  many  inter- 
esting personal  narratives.  Men  coming  back  from 
overseas  have  told  us  of  the  help  which  they  derived 
from  books  and  magazines  while  in  the  fighting  area, 
in  military  hospitals,  or  waiting  for  a  transport.  Let- 
ters sent  home  from  the  front  have  shed  additional 
light  on  the  place  which  reading  occupied  in  the  lives 
of  the  fighting  men. 

Then,  too,  the  signing  of  the  Armistice  not  only 
changed  in  large  measure  the  tense  of  my  narrative 
from  the  present  to  the  past,  but  shifted  the  empha- 


viii  PREFACE 

sis  in  library  war  service  from  the  preparation  of  men 
for  war  to  training  for  the  arts  of  peace. 

I  hop>e  that  in  the  present  volume  I  have  been  able 
to  give  a  more  adequate  picture  of  the  kind  of  work 
which  the  American  Library  Association  has  been 
privileged  to  do  for  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  the  sick 
and  the  wounded,  in  our  home  camps  and  overseas. 
The  book  is  not  a  history,  nor  an  oflBcial  report  of 
results  accomplished;  but,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  make  it,  a  human-interest  story  of  what  books  and 
reading  have  meant  to  the  morale  of  the  army  and  to 
the  individual  soldier  and  sailor  in  helping  them  to 
win  the  war  and  preparing  them  for  their  return  to 
civil  life. 

My  study  of  the  whole  subject  began  in  London  in 
1917,  before  the  United  States  had  entered  the  war. 
I  had  been  sent  abroad  by  the  Librarian  of  Congress 
on  a  special  mission,  and  had  the  misfortime,  —  or 
good  fortune,  it  all  depends  upon  how  you  look  at  it, 
—  to  be  taken  ill  with  influenza  and  to  be  sent  to  a 
private  hospital.  The  matron,  in  her  endeavor  to  keep 
me  supplied  with  reading  matter,  brought  me  a  vol- 
ume of  the  Ruhleben  Magazine  in  which  there  was  an 
account  of  the  British  Prisoners  of  War  Book  Scheme. 
This  interested  me  so  much  that  I  investigated  it  from 
the  London  headquarters  —  and  wrote  it  up.  Then  I 
heard  of  the  British  Y.M.C.A.  libraries  and  got  a 
"story"  about  them.  In  quick  succession  followed 
the  discovery  of  two  other  British  welfare  organiza- 
tions, —  the  War  Library  and  the  Camps  Library. 


PREFACE  ix 

I  felt  that  my  library  friends  back  home  and  my  fel- 
low comitrymen  with  a  feeling  for  books  would  like  to 
know  of  the  provision  that  had  been  made  for  the 
British  soldiers  and  sailors  in  the  way  of  books  and 
magazines.  I  pubUshed  my  findings  in  a  little  pam- 
phlet entitled  Books  in  Camp,  Trench,  and  Hospital. 

I  had  given  a  typewritten  copy  of  the  paper  to  Dr. 
Henry  van  Dyke,  then  in  London,  with  the  request 
that  he  write  a  preface  for  it.  He  took  the  paper  with 
him  to  America  and  sent  back  this  letter:  — 

"I  have  read  with  much  care  and  interest  your 
typewritten  statement  in  regard  to  'Books  in  camp, 
trench,  and  hospital.'  It  needs  no  introduction.  All 
the  arguments  for  giving  a  supply  of  good  reading  to 
soldiers  as  a  part  of  the  spiritual  munitions  of  war  are 
lucidly  and  strongly  put  in  your  paper.  One  thing 
this  war  has  certainly  taught  the  world,  and  that  is 
that  victory  does  not  depend  solely  upon  big  bat- 
talions, but  upon  large  and  strong  and  brave  hearts 
and  minds  in  the  battalions.  The  morale  of  the  army 
is  the  hidden  force  which  uses  the  weapons  of  war 
to  the  best  advantage,  and  nothing  is  more  impor- 
tant in  keeping  up  this  morale  than  a  supply  of  really 
good  reading  for  the  men  in  their  hours  of  enforced 
inactivity,  whether  they  are  in  campaign  preparing 
for  the  battle,  or  in  the  trench  waiting  to  renew  the 
battle  again,  or  in  hospital  wounded  and  trying  to 
regain  strength  of  body  and  mind  to  go  back  to  the 
battle  for  which  they  have  been  enlisted.  Human  fel- 
lowship, good  books,  and  music  are  three  of  the  best 


X  PREFACE 

medicines  and  tonics  in  the  world.  I  believe  these 
things  very  thoroughly,  and  you  can  use  this  expres- 
sion of  belief  in  any  way  which  may  seem  to  you  help- 
ful. I  should  like  to  do  all  that  I  can  do  for  the  good 
cause." 

By  the  time  I  returned  home,  the  United  States  had 
been  in  the  war  for  three  months.  The  American  Li- 
brary Association  had  outlined  a  programme  for  an 
adequate  Library  War  Service.  I  was  asked  to  assist 
in  the  literary  publicity  of  this  work,  and  the  present 
volume  is  the  final  form  of  such  contributions  as  I 
have  been  able  to  make  to  the  story  of  Books  in  the 
War. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  volume  I  have  been  for- 
tunate to  have  had  once  more  the  assistance  of  a 
former  associate.  Miss  Mary  M.  Melcher.  I  have 
naturally  drawn  heavily  upon  the  letters  and  reports 
of  the  camp  and  hospital  Hbrarians  and  to  them  I 
acknowledge  my  indebtedness  for  many  illustrative 
anecdotes. 

T.  W.  K. 

Library  of  Congress 
June,  1919 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Library  War  Service  of  the 
American  Library  Association        .      1 

n.  Reading  Soldiers 22 

III.  Students  in  Khaki 40 

IV.  The  Call  from  Overseas       ...  61 
V.  The  A.L.A.  m  France       ....  86 

VI.  Library  Service  by  Mail       .      .      .  108 

VII.  Naval    Libraries    and     Transport 

Service 123 

Vni.  American  Military  Hospital  Libra- 
ries         144 

IX.  Books  for  the  Sick  and  Wounded  .  162 

X.  The  British  War  Library     .      .  .  175 

XI.  The  British  Camps  Library  .      .  .  197 

XII.  British  Y.M.C.A.  Libraries  .      .  .216 

XIII.  British    Prisoners    of    War    Book 

Scheme  (Educational)        .      .      .  229 

XTV.  British  Military  Hospital  Libraries  244 

XV.  Reading  in  the  Prison  Camps      .      .  264 

XVI.  Letters  from  the  Front 

XVII.  Pictures  and  Poetry 

XVIII.  The  Bible  in  the  Trenches 

XIX.  Books  for  Blinded  Soldiers 

XX.  Reading  for  the  Future 


Index 


287 
304 
321 
335 
354 

379 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

From  a  Poster  of  the  American  Library  As- 
sociation Library  War  Service    .  Frontispiece 

Camp  Library,  Camp  Sevier 4 

An  Alcove  in  the  Camp  Library,  Camp  Upton  5 
Camp  Library,  Camp  Devens  ....  8 
Interior,  Camp  Library,  Camp  Kearny  .  .  9 
Camp  Library,  Kelly  Field,  Texas  .  .10 
Interior,  Camp  Library,  Kelly  Field,  Texas  17 
Browsing  in  the  Alcoves  of  the  A.L.A.  Li- 
brary AT  Camp  Upton 24 

Library  in  Y.M.C.A.  Tent  at  Vancouver 

Barracks 25 

Women  served  as  Librarians  in  some  of  the 

Camps 28 

A  Library  Table  in  Barracks,  Camp  Upton  29 
Burleson  Magazines  at  the  A.L.A.  Camp 

Libraries 36 

Reading  Room  in  Y.W.C.A.  Hostess  House, 

Camp  Devens 37 


Student  Officers  at  Fort  Myer,  Virginia 
Class  in  English,  Camp  Custer  . 
Camp  Library,  Camp  Devens 
A.L.A.  Camp  Library,  Camp  Gordon  . 
Convalescent    Pneumonia    Patients,    Base 
Hospital,  Camp  Bowie 52 


44 
45 

48 
49 


xiv  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Base  Hospital,  Camp  Logan,  Texas  ...    53 

A  Corner  in  the  Library  of  the  Cana- 
dian Soldiers'  College,  Seaford,  Sussex, 
England 56 

Studying  French  at  Gettysburg       ...    57 

A.L.A.  Library  War  Service  Dispatch  Of- 
fice, HOBOKEN,  N.J 64 

Cases  of  Books  Ready  for  Overseas  Ship- 
ment       65 

British  Library  Headquarters,  London 
Chapter,  American  Red  Cross       ...    72 

Library  War  Service  in  France:  Circulat- 
ing A.L.A.  Books  in  Y.M.CA.  Hut;  Stock- 
room, A.L.A.  Headquarters,  Paris       .      .    73 

From  Cotton  Fields  to  Khaki:  Colored 
Stevedores,  for  whom  their  Chaplain  so- 
licited A.L.A.  Books 80 

American  Sailors  in  the  Reading  Room  of 
One  of  their  Clubs  in  London    ...    80 

In  Aix-les-Bains,  the  Recreation  Center 
OF  the  American  Expeditionary  Force  in 
France 81 

Cheerful  Reading  :  A  Convalescent  Soldier 
"Over  There*'  enjoying  the  "Stars  and 
Stripes" 88 

Red  Cross  Hut,  Orly  Aviation  Camp,  neab 

Paris 89 

Reading  Room  at  Naval  Base,  Trompeloup, 

NEAR  PaUILLAC  .         .         .         .         .         .         .96 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

Reading  Room  and  Auditorium  at  Naval 
Base,  Trompeloup,  near  Pauillac  ...    97 

Scene  in  American  Camp,  Bordeaux  Vicinity 
(Spring  of  1919) 104 

Back  from  France:  In  the  Hospital  Ward 
AND  Library,  Camp  Custer       .      .      .       .105 

European  Headquarters,  A.L.A.  Library 
War  Service 112 

Mailing  Department,  A.L.A.  Headquarters, 
Paris 113 

Soldiers'  Library  maintained  by  the  A.L.A. 
IN  THE  Fest  Halle,  Coblenz,  Germany      .  120 

Hospital  Train  in  France 121 

American   Navy   Officers   reading  in  the 

Ward  Room  of  a  Destroyer  at  Sea  .  .124 
Crew  in  Crew's  Reading  Room  ....  125 
Reading  Room  on  a  Hospital  Ship  .  .  .  132 
On  Board  THE  Transport  "Mercury"  .  .  133 
A  Class  in  Geography  and  History  .  .  140 
Books  being  studied  by  the  Crew  of  a  Dread- 
nought         141 

Librarian  bringing  Books  to  the  Patients 
IN  the  U.S.  Debarkation  Hospital,  Grand 
Central  Palace,  New  York  City  .      .      .  144 
One  Type  of  Book  Wagon  found  Serviceable 

in  Hospital  Library  Work       ....  145 
Librarian  and  Orderly  visiting  a  Ward  in 

THE  Base  Hospital,  Camp  Devens  .       .      .  152 
Book  Cheer  for  Patients  in  the  Base  Hos- 
pital, Camp  Meade 153 


xvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Wabd  in  the  Base  Hospital,  Camp  McClel- 

LAN 156 

A.L.A.  Truck  stopping  at  a  Ward  of  the  Base 
Hospital,  Camp  Kearny 157 

An  Everyday  Scene  on  the  Porches  of  the 
Hospital  Wards  AT  Vancouver  Barracks  .  162 

Reading  Room  in  Base  Hospital  Number  1, 
Gun  Hill  Road,  Bronx,  N.Y 163 

Base  Hospital  Library,  Camp  McArthur     .  166 

Library  in  the  Red  Cross  House  at  Walter 
Reed  Hospital,  Washington,  D.C.  .      .       .  167 

A.L.A.  Library  War  Service,  operating  from 
A  Tent  in  the  St.  Denis  Hospital,  France  172 

Convalescent  Soldier  at  Debarkation  Hos- 
pital, Grand  Central  Palace,  New  York 
City 173 

British  War  Library  Headquarters       .      .  176 

The  British  Red  Cross  Society  and  Order  of 
St.  John  supplied  Books  and  Magazines 

THROUGH  the  WaR  LiBRARY  ....    177 

Book  left  for  a  Moment  by  a  Young  Officer 

WHILE  HE  stepped  INTO  A  DUG-OUT  TO  MAKE 

A  Report 188 

"What  Book  ARE  YOU  READING?"        .  .  189 

Camps  Library  Headquarters,  Horseferry 

Road,  London 204 

The  Book  Line  at  a  British  Army  Post  .      .  205 
Owing  to  a  Scarcity  of  Literary  Matter  at 
the  Front,  the  British  Soldiers  were  some- 
times reduced  to  telling  Stories   .      .      .  212 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

Sketch  by  Bairnsfather  in  the  "  Bystander  "  213 

Y.M.C.A.  Hut  in  France 220 

Books  in  the  Trenches:  Opening  a  Box  sent 
BY  THE  British  Y.M.C.A 221 

A  League  of  Nations  interested  in  the  War 
Pictures  of  an  American  Magazine  .      .  224 

American  Y.M.C.A.  Headquarters  in  Paris  .  225 

The  Aimless  and  Empty  Existence  of  Prison- 
ers OF  War:  Sketch  by  Raemaekers  .      .  236 

In  Some  Prison  Camps  the  Barber  supplied 
HIS  Patrons  with  Illustrated  Papers.       .  237 

French,  English,  and  Russian  Prisoners 
enjoying  an  American  Weekly      .      .      .  240 

A  School  in  a  Prison  Camp 241 

Library  and  Reading  Room  of  the  Military 
Hospital,  Endell  Street,  London        .      .  252 

Soldiers  and  Attendants  reading  in  the 
Military  Hospital,  Endell  Street,  Lon- 
don   253 

Two  "Tommies"  in  Hospital,  discussing  the 
News .260 

In  the  "Halls  of  Glory,"  as  the  Base  Hos- 
pitals HAVE  been  called     .      .      .      .      .  261 

German  Prisoners  interned  in  Holland       .  264 

German  Prisoner  Student  reading  an  Amer- 
ican Book  in  a  British  Prison  Camp  in 
France 265 

French  Prisoners  of  War  in  Barracks  at 
Darmstadt 272 

Prisoners  of  War  reading  after  Lunch      .  273 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Library  Tent  in  a  British  Prison  Camp 
IN  France 280 

Prisoners  of  War  always  displayed  an  In- 
terest IN  Newspapers 281 

A.L.A.  Branch  Library  in  the  Y.M.CA.  at 
Pelham  Bay 288 

War's  Contrasts 289 

The  American  Soldiers  were  well  provided 

WITH  Newspapers 296 

A  Y.M.CA.  Man  reading  during  a  Lull  in 

THE  German  Offensive 297 

Reading  Room  in  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 

Club,  No.  11,  Rue  Royale,  Paris  .  .  .  304 
A  Bugler  reading  by  Flashlight  in  his  Tent  305 
The  American  University  Union,  an  Army 

Club  for  College  Men  in  Paris  .  .  .  308 
Reading  Room  in  the  American  University 

Union,  Rue  Richelieu,  Paris  ....  309 
Jewish  Welfare  Board  Hut,  Seward  Park, 

New  York 316 

Negro  Soldiers  at  Camp  Gordon  reading 

aloud  to  their  Illiterate  Comrades  .  .317 
Printing  the  Testaments  for  the  Army  and 

Navy 322 

Packing    the    Khaki-Covered    Testaments 

for  the  Soldiers 323 

Testaments  being  distributed  by  the  New 

York  Bible  Society 326 

Library  in  U.S.  Naval  Radio  School,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass 327 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xix 

Camouflaged  Tent  of  the  Salvation  Army  .  328 
These  Women  served  Books  as  well  as 

Doughnuts  .  .  .  .  ' .  .  .  .  329 
Title-Page  of  the  Cromwelllan  Bible  .  .  332 
One  Page  of  the  Cromwelllan  Bible  .  .  333 
Class  Room  in  St.  Dunstan's  Hostel,  London  336 
The  Miracle  of  St.  Dunstan's:  Blinded  Sol- 
dier BEING  taught  THE  UsE  OF  A  WRITING 

Machine     .      .      .      .  • 337 

Light  out  of  Darkness:  Making  an  Embossed 
Map  of  the  Seat  of  the  War  ;  Braille  Sheet 
with  Diagram  showing  the  Range  of  Pro- 
jectiles        344 

Printing  THE  War  News  FOR  Blind  Soldiers  .  345 
Rug-Making  in  the   Curative  Workshop, 
Walter  Reed  General  Hospital,  Wash- 
ington, D.C 354 

Street  Sign  in  Birmingham,  Alabama,  for  the 

Benefit  of  Returned  Soldiers      .      .      .  355 
A.L.A.  Hospital  Library,  Newport  News,  Va.  364 
Study  Class  on  the  Porch  of  the  Reeduca- 
tion Department,  Walter  Reed  General 

Hospital,  Washington,  D.C 365 

Physical  Reconstruction,   Base  Hospital, 

Camp  Grant 368 

Float  showing  that  Books  outweighed 
"Army  Blues,"  Victory  Liberty  Loan 
Parade,  New  York  City 369 


BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 

The  social  side  of  the  Great  War  presents  some 
topics  which  have  not  been  prominent  in  former 
conflicts.  One  of  these  is  the  provision  of  food  for  the 
minds  of  the  fighting  men.  Previous  wars  had  shown 
us  how  to  equip  and  administer  commissary  de- 
partments and  canteens,  but  they  taught  us  Httle  of 
present-day  value  as  to  what  the  men  called  to  the 
colors  would  need  in  the  way  of  literary  or  intellectual 
equipment. 

Mr.  J.  S.  Lockwood,  a  Civil  War  veteran,  says  that 
he  can  recall  no  incident  of  books  being  available  to 
the  soldiers  of  the  sixties  with  the  exception  of  the 
few  which  were  sent  to  hospitals  in  or  near  Washing- 
ton and  in  a  few  of  the  Northern  cities.  The  men  re- 
lied almost  entirely  on  Harper* s  and  Frank  Leslie's 
Weekly;  but  in  addition  to  these  magazines  they 
longed  for  interesting  books  to  read.  Major  George 
Haven  Putnam  in  a  recent  address  in  New  York  City 
recalled  the  fact  that  two  English  grammars  were 
eagerly  read  and  passed  along  among  the  men  shut 
up  in  Libby  prison. 


2  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

More  fortunate  were  the  Connecticut  regiments, 
where  libraries  were  a  part  of  the  regimental  equip- 
ment. These  libraries  by  July,  1862,  numbered  1284 
volumes  and  5450  magazines,  shelved  and  locked  in 
strong  portable  cases  with  a  written  catalogue  and 
proper  regimental  labels.  The  books  were  on  a  great 
variety  of  subjects  and  were  of  good  quality.  They 
were  in  charge  of  Professor  Francis  Wayland,  who 
purchased  some  250  of  the  latest  books  so  as  to  make 
sure  of  having  up-to-date  material  in  the  collection. 

"It  is  the  most  convenient  thing  imaginable," 
wrote  Chaplain  Hall  of  the  10th  Connecticut  Vol- 
unteers. "I  have  constructed  a  long  writing-desk,  on 
which  I  place  all  the  papers  which  you  so  kindly 
furnish  me;  at  the  end  of  the  desk  is  my  Hbrary  of 
books.  You  will  always  find  from  ten  to  fifty  men  in 
the  tent,  reading  and  writing.  The  library  is  just  the 
thing  needed.  The  books  are  well  assorted,  and 
entertaining." 

"The  nicely-selected  stock  was  gone  in  two  hours 
after  I  had  opened  the  box,"  wrote  Chaplain  Morris 
of  the  8th  Connecticut  Volunteers.  "Since  that  time, 
the  delivery  and  return  of  books  has  occupied  several 
hours  a  day.  Dickens  has  a  great  run.  The  tales  of 
Miss  Edgeworth  and  T.  S.  Arthur  are  very  popular. 
The  Army  and  Navy  Melodies  are  hailed  with  deHght, 
and  *the  boys*  are  singing  right  merrily  almost  every 
night.  Day  before  yesterday,  I  received  a  box  of 
pamphlets  from  the  Commission.  There  were  half  a 
dozen  men  ready  to  open  the  box,  and  twenty  more  at 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  3 

hand  to  superintend  the  process  and  share  the  con- 
tents. The  demand  for  reading  is  four  times  the 
supply." 

The  Commission  referred  to  is  the  United  States 
Christian  Commission  which  prepared  and  sent  out 
215  collections  of  125  volumes  each,  and  70  collec- 
tions of  75  volumes  each.  These  libraries  were  widely 
distributed  through  the  army,  having  been  placed  in 
the  general  hospitals,  at  the  permanent  posts  and 
large  forts,  and  on  war  vessels.  Chaplain  J.  C.  Thomas 
of  the  88th  Illinois  Regiment  became  general  reading 
agent  for  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  "The  nearer 
you  can  bring  the  home  to  the  army,"  said  he,  "the 
more  useful  you  are."  As  an  illustration  of  the  re- 
gard in  which  the  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War  held  such 
books  as  they  possessed,  it  is  related  that  when  Gen- 
eral Hooker  started  to  cross  the  Potomac,  two  Penn- 
sylvania cavalrymen  came  into  the  old  church  at 
Fairfax  Court  House  bearing  their  regimental  library 
of  100  volumes  on  their  shoulders.  The  books  had  been 
with  the  regiment  for  a  year  and  a  half  and,  thinking 
that  they  would  become  separated  from  them,  it 
was  proposed  to  turn  them  over  to  the  Christian 
Commission  for  the  use  of  some  regiment  of  infantry. 

Under  the  title  "How  a  Soldier  may  Succeed  after 
the  War,"  Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell  has  recently  pub- 
lished a  score  of  stories  of  men  in  the  Civil  War 
whose  success  in  after  life  was  traceable,  in  part  at 
least,  to  their  application  to  books  during  their  leisure 
hours  while  in  the  army. 


4  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

During  the  Spanish-American  war  a  private,  dis- 
covered with  a  set  of  correspondence  school  books, 
was  told  that  he  would  have  to  get  rid  of  them,  and 
they  were  only  saved  by  his  captain  coming  to  his  aid. 

Mr.  Raymond  B.  Fosdick  says  that  while  he  was 
on  the  Mexican  border  in  the  summer  of  1916,  as  the 
train  stopped  at  the  watering  tanks  soldiers  would 
come  through  and  ask  whether  the  passengers  had 
anything  to  read,  —  a  book,  a  magazine,  or  even  a 
newspaper.  The  soldiers  had  httle  to  do  and  abso- 
lutely nothing  to  read. 

The  methods  of  warfare  have  been  revolutionized 
and  more  is  expected  of  the  soldiers  of  to-day  than 
ever  before.  Innumerable  technical  subjects  must  be 
studied;  highly  specialized  branches  must  be  mastered. 
Books  must  be  within  reach.  Not  only  do  the  students 
in  khaki  call  for  more  than  did  the  old  soldiers  in  blue 
and  gray,  but  more  is  demanded  of  them  in  return. 

"The  Civil  War  was  fought  with  the  old-time 
instruments,  by  the  old-time  methods,"  said  Dr. 
Herbert  Putnam.  "This  war  has  introduced  novel 
instruments  and  quite  novel  methods.  It  is,  in  fact, 
a  war  of  mechanism  and  of  exact  science;  the  mechan- 
ism is  intricate  and  the  science  extends  not  merely 
to  the  ordnance  but  to  every  factor  of  organization, 
transportation,  sanitation,  equipment,  supply.  It  is  a 
war  of  engineering;  it  is  a  war  of  chemistry;  it  is  a 
war  of  physics;  it  is  a  war  of  dynamics.  It  is  a  war  of 
hygiene,  down  to  the  minutest  values.  The  sciences 
of  it  involve  not  merely  vast  ingenuity  in  the  creation 


I— I  a, 

'^  't 

<  .S 

>-  c 

c;  3 


u  ^ 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  5 

of  offensives,  but  an  even  more  anxious  study  and 
creation  of  defensives. 

"You  might  suppose  this  need  to  concern  only  the 
officers.  That  would  be  your  mistake;  branches  of  it 
may  concern  even  the  privates;  and  if  they  don't 
concern  them  as  a  part  of  their  military  duties  they 
are  bound  to  interest  them  as  individuals,  with  an 
avid  curiosity  to  learn  all  about  the  mechanism 
which  they  are  aiding  to  operate." 

The  earliest  camp  library,  so  far  as  we  know,  was 
that  which  figured  in  Napoleon's  campaign  in  Egypt. 
This  was  selected  and  organized  by  the  Say  brothers 
with  scrupulous  regard  for  Napoleon's  orders.  It 
consisted  of  about  one  thousand  volumes,  forty  of 
which  were  on  religion,  with  equal  numbers  in  the 
drama  and  epic  poetry,  sixty  in  history  and  one 
hundred  in  fiction.  The  famous  authors  included 
Homer,  Virgil,  Tacitus,  Polybius,  Plutarch,  Thu- 
cydides,  Tasso,  Ariosto,  Montesquieu,  Voltaire,  La 
Fontaine,  Le  Sage  and  Ossian.  There  were  French 
translations  of  Cook's  Voyages  and  Barclay's  Ge- 
ography, lives  of  Charles  XII  and  Frederick  II.  But 
needless  to  say  these  books  were  not  for  the  men  in 
the  ranks. 

Upon  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
world  war,  the  president  of  the  American  Library 
Association  appointed  a  War  Service  Committee 
which  made  its  first  report  at  the  annual  conference 
of  the  Association  at  Louisville  in  June,  1917.  The 


6  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities  by  a 
unanimous  vote  invited  the  A.L.A.  to  assume  the 
responsibility  for  providing  adequate  library  facil- 
ities in  the  camps  and  cantonments. 

The  Secretary  of  War  having  appointed  ten  na- 
tionally known  men  and  women  as  a  Library  War 
Council  to  aid  in  an  appeal  for  funds,  it  was  decided 
to  raise  by  private  subscription  a  million  dollars  with 
which  to  carry  on  the  work.  The  financial  campaign 
was  successful  in  raising  the  money  asked  for  —  and 
two  thirds  as  much  again.  A  campaign  for  books  was 
conducted  at  the  same  time  as  the  campaign  for 
funds,  resulting  in  the  receipt  of  over  two  hundred 
thousand  volumes  for  immediate  service.  These  were 
collected  at  central  points  and  delivered  either  at 
the  camps  or  at  designated  depots  for  transportation 
abroad.  It  was  planned  to  use  the  fimds  largely  for 
books  of  a  serious  nature,  as  it  was  anticipated  that 
the  lighter  books  would  be  largely  supplied  by  gift. 
The  campaign  for  books  was  to  continue  as  long  as 
the  war  lasted,  as  would  also  the  need  for  funds  if  the 
war  were  to  last  as  long  as  some  people  predicted. 
The  Carnegie  Corporation  made  a  grant  of  $10,000 
for  each  of  the  proposed  thirty-two  camp  libraries, 
and  a  similar  sum  was  received  from  another  source 
for  a  Hbrary  building  at  the  Great  Lakes  Naval 
Training  Station. 

These  financial  resources  lasted,  with  careful  hus- 
banding, for  approximately  a  year.  The  A.L.A.  then 
joined  with  the  six  other  welfare  organizations  in 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  7 

the  United  War  Work  Campaign  of  November,  1918, 
which  brought  to  the  Library  Association  a  quota  of 
something  over  three  and  a  half  milhon  dollars. 

In  October,  1917,  at  the  request  of  the  War  Service 
Committee  of  the  American  Library  Association,  Dr. 
Herbert  Putnam,  Librarian  of  Congress,  took  over 
the  direction  and  control  of  the  War  Service  work. 
Headquarters  were  established  in  the  Library  of 
Congress.  Here  there  was  competent  oversight  of  the 
work  at  the  camps  and  careful  administration  of 
the  Fund,  with  a  scrutinizing  accounting  of  all  ex- 
penditures. Prompt  consideration  was  given  to  the 
needs  and  opportunities  for  service  as  reported  by  the 
librarians  in  charge  at  the  camps.  Considerate  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  relations  with  other  organizations 
and  branches  of  the  government  service.  An  urgent 
appeal  for  material  was  being  sent  out  and  its  dis- 
tribution properly  looked  after.  The  headquarters 
also  served  as  a  clearing-house  for  information,  and 
for  experiences  of  camp  librarians,  and  as  a  place 
for  conferences  between  workers  themselves.  An 
earnest  and  successful  effort  was  made  to  keep 
administrative  expenses  down  to  a  minimum.  Every 
dollar  saved  meant  another  book  bought.  The  head- 
quarters in  the  Library  of  Congress  were  supplied 
without  cost  to  the  Fund. 

The  first  care  was  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  the 
large  cantonments.  Locations  for  the  proposed  library 
buildings  were  secured  near  the  residential  center  of 
the  camps  and  convenient  to  the  transportation  lines. 


8  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  buildings  were  erected  in  the  fall  and  winter  of 
1917-18.  They  were  plain  wooden  structures,  one 
story  high,  conforming  to  the  general  type  adopted 
for  the  cantonments,  but  admirably  suited  to  their 
special  use.  They  were  designed  by  E.  L.  Tilton, 
a  well-known  library  architect,  who  contributed 
his  services.  The  libraries  were  all  built  after  one 
plan,  differing  only  in  length.  The  original  draw- 
ings called  for  a  building  120  x  40  feet,  but  in  some 
cases  the  length  was  cut  down  to  93  feet.  The  in- 
terior was  one  large  room  with  two  bedrooms  located 
at  one  end.  Open  shelving  provided  accommodation 
for  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  volumes. 

The  charging  desk  faced  the  entrance.  There  were 
suitable  reading  chairs  and  tables  for  about  two  hun- 
dred men.  The  buildings  were  heated  and  lighted 
by  the  War  Department.  Some  had  open  fireplaces, 
while  others,  in  the  South,  had  the  attractive  feature 
of  an  enclosed  porch.  The  majority  were  built  on  a 
basis  of  cost  plus  six  per  cent.  Delay  in  arrival  of 
furniture  and  equipment  postponed  the  opening  of  a 
few  libraries;  epidemics  were  a  deterring  factor  in 
other  cases.  But  in  the  meantime  the  buildings  were 
used  for  the  storage  and  preparation  of  the  books 
for  the  shelves.  They  were  doing  business  even 
without  furniture.  In  some  cases  makeshift  furni- 
ture was  rented;  in  others,  crude  benches  and  tables 
were  made  out  of  rough  lumber. 

At  Camp  Devens  temporary  quarters  were  found 
in  a  mess  hall  formerly  used  by  officers  of  the  Quarter- 


.a 

.2 

■a 


a 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  9 

master's  Corps,  with  tables  for  about  seventy  readers. 
Books  were  accommodated  on  makeshift  wall  shelv- 
ing under  the  windows  and  in  six-foot  sections  of 
shelving  so  constructed  that  they  could  be  used  else- 
where if  needed.  Boxes  turned  on  sides  were  also 
used  for  shelving. 

The  buildings  for  the  National  Guard  Camps  were 
deliberately  deferred  because  of  the  uncertainty  as  to 
how  long  these  tent  camps  would  be  maintained, 
and  because  of  the  Hkelihood  that  the  already  sea- 
soned occupants  would  be  sent  abroad  before  the 
buildings  could  be  made  available  for  them. 

In  erecting  the  buildings,  many  obstacles  were 
met.  Wages  and  prices  for  materials  had  risen,  freight 
was  seriously  congested,  and  contractors  were  leaving 
the  camps  with  their  laborers. 

Much  of  the  equipment  can  be  used  later  on  in 
the  establishment  of  new  public  libraries. 

It  became  apparent  quite  early  that  at  least  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  new  books  would  have  to 
be  purchased  immediately  for  the  larger  cantonments. 
While  it  was  recognized  that  many  desirable  books 
would  be  presented  and  that  similar  gifts  would  con- 
tinue to  come  in,  yet  there  would  be  innumerable 
titles  asked  for  that  could  only  be  secured  by  pur- 
chase. It  would  be  obviously  impossible  to  rely  upon 
donations  to  meet  the  specific  needs  of  officers  in 
charge  of  military  instruction  and  ambitious  soldiers 
following  definite  lines  of  study.  It  would  be  futile  to 
hope,  for  instance,  that  the  special  books  on  wireless 


10  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

telegraphy  most  in  demand  would  come  in  by  chance 
gifts.  Ample  f mids  must  be  in  hand  so  that  all  needs 
could  be  met  as  they  became  known.  Textbooks  had 
to  be  supplied  in  considerable  quantities.  Expensive 
up-to-date  reference  books  were  provided  generously. 
The  problem  of  transportation  and  freight  congestion 
had  to  be  faced.  All  books,  whether  purchased  or 
donated,  had  to  be  made  ready  for  use.  Volumes  had 
to  be  replaced  as  they  became  worn  out  or  lost. 

Thanks  to  the  "speeding  up"  of  this  work  by  Dr. 
Putnam,  the  General  Director,  the  first  of  January, 
1918,  found  three  hundred  and  ten  thousand  books  in 
the  larger  training  camps  and  thirty-four  thousand 
in  the  smaller  posts,  with  about  two  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  additional  volumes  on  the  way.  Had 
it  not  been  for  transportation  difficulties  all  these 
books  would  have  been  in  place  much  earlier.  By  the 
end  of  March  an  additional  half  million  books  were 
shipped.  The  purchases  were  made  cautiously,  and 
consisted  almost  entirely  of  serious  books  on  tech- 
nology, the  mechanic  arts,  military  science,  history 
and  travel. 

Credit  is  due  many  publishing  houses  for  their 
generous  cooperation.  Discounts  of  from  forty-five 
to  fifty  per  cent  from  publication  prices  were  by  no 
means  uncommon.  Some  university  presses  and  cor- 
respondence schools  offered  to  donate  such  of  their 
publications  as  could  be  used. 

The  books  were  not  chosen  by  librarians  closeted 
in  their  offices.  The  lists  ordered  from  headquarters 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE         11 

were  the  result  of  consultation  with  numerous  experts 
in  the  different  fields  of  the  service.  Many  titles  were 
requisitioned  by  oflBcers,  educational  secretaries,  and 
men  in  the  camps  who  felt  the  need  for  a  specific 
book. 

Much  of  the  assembling  and  despatching  of  ma- 
terial at  local  points  was  done  by  the  local  librarians 
volunteering  for  this  special  war  service.  Expensive 
formalities  in  the  way  of  complicated  classification 
and  cataloguing  were  avoided.  There  was  ordinarily 
no  catalogue  record  of  fiction.  Non-fiction,  which 
represented  the  expenditure  of  much  money,  was 
roughly  classified,  just  enough  to  bring  the  large 
groups  of  kindred  books  together. 

Two  months'  resident  service  was  asked  of  the 
library  organizers.  For  this  work  a  number  of  high- 
grade  men  were  lent  by  their  library  trustees,  given 
leave  with  pay,  their  expenses  being  met  by  the 
Association.  Some  of  the  camp  librarians  were  volun- 
teers; others  were  paid  a  small  salary.  There  were 
also  paid  assistants  provided  with  subsistence.  Pro- 
vision was  likewise  made  for  janitor  service  and  the 
expenses  of  the  local  volunteers. 

That  men  who  had  been  drilling,  marching,  and 
digging  trenches  all  day  were  likely  to  be  too  tired  in 
the  evening  to  wish  to  walk  any  great  distance  for 
books  was  recognized  in  efforts  to  bring  the  books 
as  near  to  the  soldiers'  barracks  as  possible.  In  some 
instances  traveling  libraries  were  resorted  to  with 
very  great  success. 


12  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

In  some  camps,  books  were  sent  to  the  barracks, 
where  they  were  placed  in  the  social  room  under  the 
direction  of  the  "top"  sergeant  upon  the  request  of 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  company,  the  captain 
or  the  lieutenant.  The  handling  of  books  so  deposited 
was  left  to  the  sergeant,  with  no  instructions  except 
a  request  that  he  look  after  the  books  as  carefully 
as  possible. 

Regimental  libraries  were  found  at  the  headquarters 
of  the  officers  of  a  regiment.  These  were  used  by  from 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  officers.  A  lieutenant  was 
usually  detailed  to  look  after  the  library,  which  was 
treated  as  a  branch  of  the  A.L.A.  library.  The  books 
were  exchanged  from  time  to  time  as  needed. 

All  books  had  to  be  delivered  at  storehouses  of  the 
Quartermaster's  Corps,  and  had  to  be  taken  from 
platforms  every  day.  No  assistance  could  be  given  in 
the  matter  of  delivery  to  the  library  building  either 
by  the  Quartermaster  or  the  express  companies.  It  was 
found  expedient  to  supply  each  camp  library  with  a 
low-priced  automobile  with  delivery  box  attached. 

Requests  for  additional  aid  in  handling  the  books 
in  some  instances  resulted  in  amusing  misfits.  One 
camp  librarian  had  two  Italians  who  could  neither 
write  nor  speak  English  detailed  to  assist  him,  — 
despite  the  fact  that  there  was  a  trained  Library  of 
Congress  assistant  among  the  drafted  men  in  camp. 
Another  discovered  that  the  sturdy  enlisted  man 
chosen  by  the  Division  Adjutant  to  be  his  library 
assistant  could  neither  read  nor  write.  The  librarian 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE         13 

at  Camp  Dodge  was  more  fortunate,  as  four  men 
previously  engaged  in  library  work  were  found  in 
camp,  and  were  permitted  to  help  in  the  library. 

The  American  Library  Association  worked  in  close 
connection  with  other  welfare  organizations.  It  was 
originally  proposed  that  the  book  service  should  be 
largely  through  the  Y.M.C.A.,  the  Knights  of  Co- 
lumbus, and  other  agencies.  Until  the  A.L.A.  build- 
ings became  available  many  books  were  distributed 
in  mess  halls  and  among  the  Y.M.C.A.  huts,  field 
hospitals,  and  clubs  of  the  Commission  on  Training 
Camp  Activities.  These  books  formed  part  of  the  col- 
lection for  which  the  A.L.A.  was  responsible  and  for 
the  supply  of  which  it  should  have  credit.  Despite 
the  fact  that  the  book-plates  showed  the  source, 
their  service  was  popularly  credited  to  the  Y.M.C.A. 

The  Y.M.C.A.  buildings  (of  which  there  were  from 
six  to  ten  in  each  camp)  and  Knights  of  Columbus 
buildings  were  utilized  as  branch  libraries  or  dis- 
tributing stations.  A  Y.M.C.A.  building  was  pro- 
vided for  each  brigade  —  a  unit  of  six  or  seven  thou- 
sand men  —  and  this  use  of  their  buildings  by  the 
libraries  shortened  the  distance  between  the  book 
and  the  prospective  reader.  It  helped  to  get  hold  of 
many  men  who  were  not  in  the  habit  of  reading. 
When  a  quarantine  was  declared  at  Camp  Beaure- 
gard, and  the  Camp  Library  had  to  cease  its  activi- 
ties and  the  circulation  of  books  was  temporarily 
stopped,  the  Y.M.C.A.  distributed  many  thousands 
of  camp  library  magazines  among  the  infected  troops. 


14  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

In  each  Y.M.C.A.  hut  there  is  provision  for  shelv- 
ing from  three  hundred  and  fifty  to  six  hundred  vol- 
umes and  also  some  reading-room  space.  "Quiet 
rooms"  are  provided  and  also  two  large  class  rooms 
that  can  be  converted  into  four  smaller  rooms  and 
made  available  for  the  use  of  soldiers  for  reading  and 
study.  To  each  building  are  attached  four  or  five 
secretaries,  one  of  whom  has  special  charge  of  the 
educational  work,  including  the  supervision  of  the 
library,  for  which  men  familiar  with  library  work 
are  sometimes  found. 

The  camp  libraries  furnished  books  to  the  various 
army  chaplains,  some  of  whom  had  reading  tents. 
Other  chaplains  had  shelves  in  the  oflBcers'  mess  hall. 

While  the  Red  Cross  distributed  some  books  with 
the  soldiers'  kits,  it  does  not  maintain  libraries  or 
lending  collections.  Such  library  service  as  it  did  in 
Great  Britain  was  limited  to  the  men  in  the  military 
hospitals.  In  France,  on  the  other  hand,  it  acted  as 
one  of  the  distributing  agents  for  A.L.A.  books. 

The  fairly  steady  stream  of  gifts  to  the  camp  li- 
braries kept  pace  for  some  time  with  the  demands 
for  new  branches  and  the  replenishing  of  the  shelves 
of  branches  already  open.  The  quality  of  the  books 
sent  was  in  general,  good,  —  varying  from  sets  of 
encyclopedias  to  individual  books  contributed  by 
their  own  authors. 

"Many  clean,  second-hand  books  can  be  used," 
urged  Mr.  W.  E.  Henry,  "but  let  us  not  insult  our 
devoted  brothers  by  offering  them  what  no  one  else 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE         15 

can  use.  They  wear  the  best  of  wool  clothing,  much 
of  which  may  be  blood-stained.  They  wear  the  best 
of  leather  shoes,  many  of  which  will  be  worn  out,  but 
these  materials  will  have  done  their  service.  Give  the 
soldier,  therefore,  good  clean  books  and  late  mag- 
azines whatever  ultimately  may  be  the  fate  of  this 
material." 

In  March,  1918,  a  national  campaign  for  books  was 
started  which  brought  in  three  and  a  half  million 
volumes,  the  great  majority  of  which  was  well  suited 
for  Library  War  Service. 

That  the  gift-horse  needed  inspecting,  however, 
was  demonstrated  anew  in  a  few  centers.  To  the  as- 
sistant in  charge  of  the  sorting  station  at  the  New 
York  PubHc  Library,  it  seemed  as  if  at  least  one  copy 
of  every  improper  book  that  had  ever  been  written 
was  sent  in  for  the  soldiers  and  sailors.  At  the  other 
end  of  the  range  of  these  rejected  offers  was  a  shelf- 
ful  of  Elsie  books,  with  scattering  volumes  of  Al- 
ger's juvenile  stories,  interspersed  with  a  file  of  the 
Undertaker* s  Review. 

School  readers  antedating  the  Civil  War  were 
judged  unusable,  as  were  out-of-date  textbooks  and 
the  too  soiled  editions  of  classical  authors  given  by 
people  with  zeal  for  clearing  their  shelves,  rather 
than  ideas  of  what  soldiers  like.  One  well-meaning 
but  misguided  woman  beamed  with  a  sense  of  duty 
done  when  she  said  that  her  grandfather,  who  was 
a  minister,  had  had  his  sermons  published,  —  "well, 
not  exactly  published,  but  privately  printed.  I  have 


16  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

several  hundred  copies  left  and  while  I  dislike  parting 
with  them,  I  may  as  well  send  them  to  the  Camp 
Libraries.  And  there  are  some  more  books  which 
have  been  in  the  house  for  ages,  that  I  don't  know 
what  to  do  with.  I'm  going  to  send  those  too." 

Among  other  rejected  offerings  were  Paley's 
"Moral  Philosophy";  Sunday-school  books  of  fifty 
years  ago;  annual  reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
proceedings  of  the  American  Breeder's  Association; 
the  Postal  and  Telegraphic  Code  of  the  Argentine 
Republic;  annual  reports  of  the  Episcopal  Eye  and 
Ear  Hospital,  twenty  years  back;  odd  volumes  of  the 
official  Records  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion;  "  How  to 
Exercise  in  Bed  " ;  "  Ten  Nights  in  a  Bar  Room  " ;  Rus- 
kin's  "Letters  to  Young  Girls";  Miss  Leslie's  "Ameri- 
can Girl's  Book,  or  Occupations  for  Play  Hours'* 
(1866);  "The  Lady's  Friend"  (1864);  copies  of  the 
Housevnfe  and  Home  Needlework  and  a  Diary  for  1916, 
partly  filled  in  by  the  donor! 

One  camp  librarian  estimated  that  of  the  gifts  sent 
to  his  library,  eighty  per  cent  were  first  class,  ten  per 
cent  tolerable  and  the  balance  worthless.  Budding 
poets  seemed  particularly  generous  with  contribu- 
tions. Among  the  literary  curiosities  at  that  particu- 
lar library  were  an  1870  European  Guide  and  a 
street  guide  to  Berlin,  the  latter  in  constant  use  by 
the  optimistic  men  who  expected  to  find  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Prussian  capital  helpful  later  on. 

Attempts  were  made  to  use  the  camp  libraries  as 
a  means  of  circulating  German  propagandist  publica- 


>1 

a 
S 
\3 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  17 

tions.  "The  Vampire  of  the  Continent"  and  other 
pro-German  works  had  to  be  refused. 

Evidences  of  the  appreciation  of  the  eflForts  of  the 
camp  librarian  have  come  in  from  many  sides. 

A  man  looking  over  the  technical  shelves  at  Camp 
Jackson,  said,  "Do  you  know  that  every  time  I  come 
in  here  I  am  surprised  at  the  scope  of  this  library.  I 
have  enjoyed  every  minute  I  have  been  here."  A 
frequenter  of  a  branch  library  located  in  a  "Y"  hut 
at  Camp  Jackson  thought  it  would  be  a  respectable 
library  for  any  town,  adding  that  books  were  a  great 
relief  after  the  day's  drill  and  the  hard  physical 
exercise. 

A  man  at  Camp  Devens  said  that  what  he  wanted 
was  a  place  where  he  could  sit  down  in  peace  and 
quiet,  with  a  book  or  two  and  a  chance  to  read  and 
dream.  "Your  alcoves  are  godsends,"  said  he  to  the 
librarian.  "The  barrack's  social  room  in  which 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  men 
are  talking  and  playing  cards,  where  a  piano  and 
phonograph  are  rivaling  one  another,  and  where  at 
any  moment  a  basketball  may  knock  your  head  side- 
ways, is  certainly  no  decent  place  to  read,  let  alone 
trying  to  do  any  studying."  One  oflBcer  reported 
that  the  A.L.A.  library  buildings  were  the  only  places 
where  the  men  felt  secure  from  both  rag-time  and 
prayer  meetings !  A  captain  who  used  a  camp  library 
regularly  said  that  the  library  books  were  what  made 
army  life  endurable  for  him. 

"I  don't  know  what  would  become  of  us  if  it  were 


18  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

not  for  the  Red  Cross  Convalescent  House  and  the 
Hospital  Library,"  said  a  convalescent  soldier  at 
Camp  Sevier. 

When  a  machine-gun  company  in  one  of  the  camps 
went  into  quarantine  on  account  of  measles,  the 
major  was  glad  to  have  a  hundred  books  and  a  lot 
of  magazines  sent  over  to  him.  The  camp  librarian 
was  aware  of  the  fact  that  the  medical  officer  might 
not  permit  the  return  of  this  material,  but  he  was 
willing  to  stand  the  loss. 

A  soldier  detailed  to  call  for  a  box  of  books  at  the 
public  Hbrary,  said:  "Gee,  Lady,  you  mean  to  give  us 
all  those  books!  Say,  you  people  know  what  to  do 
for  a  soldier!  Some  people  just  talk  an'  talk  about 
entertainin'  soldiers,  but  say,  you  just  hit  the  nail 
right  on  the  head  —  without  sayin'  a  word,  too!" 

"I  have  just  returned  to  my  tent  after  a  visit  to 
the  Camp  Library,"  wrote  a  private  from  Camp 
MacArthur  to  his  people  at  home.  "I  wish  I  could 
tell  you  how  very  much  it  means  to  me  to  have  all 
the  facilities  of  a  modem,  splendidly  equipped  hbrary 
at  my  disposal  right  here  in  camp.  The  hbrary  build- 
ing itself  is  very  attractive  and  it  is  most  refreshing 
to  enter  a  large  airy  reading  room  with  real  chairs 
and  tables  in  it.  This  last  statement  may  sound 
strange  to  you,  but  perhaps  you  have  never  lived  in 
a  tent  where  the  only  furniture  consisted  of  light 
canvas  cots.  To  get  away  from  these  hot,  dusty  sur- 
faces of  canvas  and  rough  boards  and  then  to  enter 
a  clean,  well-Hghted  room  with  books,  magazines. 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE         19 

and  ice  water,  certainly  makes  a  fellow  grateful  to 
the  people  who  established  special  libraries  for  the 
soldiers. 

"A  great  many  men  go  to  the  library  to  read  and 
to  study  who  never  entered  a  library  before  in  their 
lives.  They  can  be  distinguished  by  their  freedom 
from  the  customary  subdued  and  rather  book-wormy 
behavior  of  the  habitual  frequenter  of  libraries. 
Instead  of  walking  around  on  tiptoe  and  addressing 
the  librarian  in  a  meek  whisper,  they  stamp  around 
in  their  big  boots  and  talk  out  loud  in  a  most  un- 
concerned way." 

Major-General  Glenn,  in  accepting  the  library 
building  at  Camp  Sherman  on  behalf  of  the  Eighty- 
third  Division,  spoke  with  great  warmth  of  the  ef- 
ficiency of  the  camp  library  service  and  said  that  its 
work  was  of  the  very  first  importance.  He  dwelt  on 
the  lesson  to  be  learned  from  a  book  he  was  then 
reading,  Dawson's  "Carry  On,"  and  showed  how 
the  spirit  of  optimism,  the  ability  to  smile  and  make 
the  best  of  things,  could  survive  and  overcome  every 
trial.  Such  a  spirit  could  be  cultivated  best  from 
books,  from  the  great  minds  of  all  ages,  for  the 
supreme  quality  of  every  great  mind  was  to  rise 
superior  to  circumstances.  "This  is  not  a  charity," 
said  Major-General  Glenn.  "Our  soldiers  give  up 
excellent  libraries  at  home  and  should,  if  possible, 
have  them  available  during  their  spare  hours  while 
serving  in  the  ranks  as  soldiers.  All  forms  of  healthy 
mental  and  physical  entertainment  of  enlisted  men 


20  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

are  desirable,  but  none  more  so  than  fine,  suitable 
reading  matter.*' 

The  Chairman  of  the  War  and  Navy  Departments* 
Commissions  on  Training  Camp  Activities  wrote  as 
follows  to  the  General  Director  of  the  A.L.A.  War 
Service  in  regard  to  what  had  been  accomplished  up 
to  midsummer  of  1918: 

My  dear  Dr.  Putnam: 

Just  back  from  France,  I  want  to  express  my  keen 
appreciation  of  what  the  American  Library  Associa- 
tion is  doing  for  our  troops  abroad.  I  found  your 
books  everywhere,  from  the  seaport  bases  to  the 
front  line  trenches.  I  found  them  in  dug-outs  thirty 
to  forty  feet  below  ground,  in  car  bams  where  the 
shrapnel  had  blown  parts  of  the  roof  away,  as  well 
as  in  the  substantial  huts  and  tents  far  back  from 
the  firing  line.  I  foimd  them  also  in  hospitals  and 
dressing  stations;  in  scattered  villages  in  the  training 
area  where  our  men  are  billeted  and  even  in  remote 
parts  of  France  where  our  forestry  units  are  carrying 
on  their  lonely  but  essential  work. 

And  they  were  well-worn  books  that  I  saw,  show- 
ing signs  of  constant  usage.  Indeed,  the  books  are  in 
continual  demand  and  I  am  sure  that  it  will  be  a 
reading  army  that  we  shall  welcome  home  from 
France  when  the  war  is  done. 

As  you  know,  your  organization  overseas  is  work- 
ing in  close  cooperation  with  the  Young  Men*s 
Christian  Association,  Knights  of  Columbus  and  the 


A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE         21 

Salvation  Army,  and  its  services  are  recognized  and 
appreciated  by  the  entire  Expeditionary  Forces  from 
General  Pershing  to  the  lowest  private. 
Cordially  yours 

Raymond  B.  Fosdick 

Chairman 

To  help  win  the  war,  and  to  help  in  the  great  work 
of  reconstruction  after  the  war,  were  the  two  great 
objects  of  all  these  affiliated  organizations.  The  camp 
libraries  contributed  their  share  to  both  these  ends. 
They  helped  to  keep  the  men  more  fit  physically, 
mentally,  and  spiritually,  and  prepared  many  for 
greater  usefulness  after  the  war.  Good  reading  helped 
to  keep  many  a  soldier  up  to  his  highest  level  and 
aided  in  the  recovery  of  many  a  wounded  man.  It 
helped  to  keep  him  cheerful,  and  to  send  him  back 
to  the  firing  line  with  renewed  determination  to  win 
or  die  bravely  in  the  attempt. 


CHAPTER  n 

READING  SOLDIERS 

Do  the  men  in  the  camps  read?  When  do  they  find 
time  for  it? 

Some  people  at  the  outset  raised  the  first  ques- 
tion; others  were  doubtful  about  the  second.  Major- 
General  Glenn,  the  commanding  officer  at  Camp 
Sherman,  wrote  in  1917  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Brett,  late  li- 
brarian of  the  Cleveland  Public  Library,  asking  him 
to  take  steps  to  correct  the  erroneous  impression  that 
had  gone  abroad  that  the  men  did  not  have  time  for 
reading  on  accoimt  of  the  demands  of  military  train- 
ing. He  wished  to  have  it  known  that  there  was  no 
one  thing  that  would  be  of  greater  value  to  the  men 
in  his  cantonment  in  producing  contentment  with 
their  surroundings  than  properly  selected  reading 
matter. 

One  officer  wrote  to  headquarters  that  he  needed 
books  for  his  men  so  badly  that  he  was  quite  wilKng 
to  pay  for  them  himself.  Another  said  that  if  the 
A.L.A.  would  supply  his  regiment  with  books,  he 
would  see  to  it  that  a  room  and  a  competent  man  to 
take  care  of  them  should  be  provided.  Even  be- 
fore the  regular  camp  libraries  were  opened  a  hun- 
dred books  placed  in  a  Y.M.C.A.  building  of  an 
evening  would  usually  be  borrowed  before  the  build- 
ing closed  for  the  night. 


READING  SOLDIERS  23 

The  expectation  that  as  the  men  became  hardened 
and  accustomed  to  their  work  and  hours  they  would 
not  tire  so  quickly  and  consequently  would  be  better 
able  to  read  and  study  was  soon  fulfilled.  As  they 
had  little  but  the  recreation  halls  to  occupy  their 
leisure,  many  who  were  not  naturally  studious  were 
glad  to  turn  to  the  libraries  during  the  stormy  days 
and  long  evenings. 

Within  three  months  after  the  opening  of  the  first 
camp  library,  forty  per  cent  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
camps  and  cantonments  had  become  users  of  the 
libraries. 

A  Pole  at  Camp  Devens  remarked  that  since  they 
could  carry  very  little  with  them,  he  had  left  his 
books  with  his  friends,  but  he  was  taking  with  him 
to  the  front  Rato's  "Republic**  in  Greek,  Shake- 
speare*s  "  Sonnets  *'  in  English,  and  Goethe's  "  Poems  ** 
in  German. 

"Please  send  us  some  books.  We  ain't  got  no  books 
at  all.  We  are  regulars  and  get  just  as  lonesome  as 
national  guards."  This  was  the  appeal  sent  by  a 
private  from  a  small  camp  to  a  pubKc  librarian  in  the 
East.  Into  the  first  of  several  shipments  the  thought- 
ful librarian  slipped  a  supply  of  candy  and  tobacco. 
The  response  was  immediate.  "If  you  ever  done 
good  to  a  man  you  done  good  to  me,"  wrote  the 
soldier,  "but  please  don't  waste  no  more  space  for 
eats.  Just  send  the  books.'* 

"What*s  that  you're  reading?"  asked  a  corporal 
of  a  companion  in  barracks. 


24  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"  Boswell's  '  Life  of  Johnson.'  ** 

"Why  are  you  reading  that?'* 

"Because  I  am  tired  of  telling  people  I  never  read 
it,  or  trying  to  look  wise  when  somebody  mentions 
it.  Now  is  the  time  to  clean  up  on  books  like  that, 
and  the  Camp  Library  has  got  them  all." 

At  Camp  Gordon  the  very  first  call  was  for  Goethe's 
"Faust."  The  second  was  for  a  book  on  carpentry. 
An  imexpected  request  was  from  a  chemical  student 
for  a  book  on  aniline  dyes.  One  man,  during  his 
spare  time,  was  studying  up  on  foreign  trade  with  a 
view  to  working  in  South  America  after  the  war. 

"We  use  all  sorts  of  books,  from  primers  to  Virgil, 
and  logarithms,  with  lots  of  good  stories  all  the  time," 
said  one  camp  Ubrarian.  "One  man  walked  up  to  the 
desk  and  said,  *Look  at  me  and  give  me  a  book  to 
read.'  When  the  librarian  started  to  question,  he 
asserted  that  one  in  her  position  ought  to  be  able  to 
tell  by  a  man's  appearance  what  his  literary  taste 
might  be.  It  seems  that  the  reputation  was  upheld, 
for  he  has  been  one  of  the  regular  patrons  from  that 
day." 

Many  of  the  men  who  are  using  the  camp  libraries 
have  never  before  had  the  privilege  of  access  to 
books  and  know  nothing  of  the  liberality  of  library 
service.  "How  much  do  I  owe  you?"  asked  a  moun- 
taineer from  an  isolated  district  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Kentucky,  after  having  been  given  a  book  at 
Camp  Zachary  Taylor.  A  question  constantly  put 
to  the  camp  librarian  is  "How  much  does  it  cost  to 


W   .2 


S 


READING  SOLDIERS  25 

borrow  books?"  There  are  many  who  when  told 
that  the  service  is  free  look  at  the  librarian  a  second 
time  to  see  whether  he  is  not  joking. 

Into  the  Detroit  Public  Library  there  came  re- 
cently a  young  man,  dressed  in  khaki,  with  his  arm 
in  a  sling.  He  asked  somewhat  timidly  for  a  certain 
book  which  the  assistant  helped  him  to  find.  The 
soldier  was  so  evidently  pleased  at  getting  hold  of 
the  desired  book  that  it  led  him  to  be  confidential. 
He  said  that  he  was  on  a  furlough  from  Camp  Custer 
until  his  broken  arm  healed;  that  he  had  disliked  the 
thought  of  leaving  the  camp  because  he  would  miss 
its  library,  but  had  been  told  that  there  was  a  similar 
and  much  larger  library  in  Detroit  for  the  free  use 
of  the  public. 

An  architect  graduate  of  a  Middle  Western  college 
and  of  Harvard  University  was  at  Camp  Devens, 
homesick.  In  looking  over  the  camp  library  shelves 
he  discovered  Mark  Twain's  "Life  on  the  Missis- 
sippi," and  he  almost  wept  with  joy  as  he  pointed 
out  to  the  librarian  all  the  places  he  knew  in  his 
boyhood.  He  became  a  constant  visitor  and  his 
homesickness  vanished. 

A  Texan  at  Camp  Devens  who  had  never  been  in 
New  England  before  was  invited  to  Boston  for  dinner, 
and  in  preparation  for  the  event  asked  at  the  library 
for  something  that  would  show  the  special  character 
of  Boston  and  its  people. 

Camp  Humphreys  is  on  the  site  of  the  old  Fairfax 
estate  at  Belvoir,  and  the  historic  nature  of  the 


26  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ground  has  aroused  a  desire  for  information  on  the 
subject.  Books  on  the  Civil  War  campaigns  in  Vir- 
ginia have  been  much  in  demand,  and  there  has 
been  a  steady  circulation  of  books  bearing  on  the 
Colonial  family  history  associated  with  the  locality. 
In  this  connection  the  library  has  been  able  to  offer 
Wilstach's  "Mount  Vernon,"  Hay  worth's  "George 
Washington,  Farmer,"  and  Callahan's  "George 
Washington,  the  Man  and  the  Mason. " 

The  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  British  forces 
created  a  demand  for  books  on  Jerusalem  and  the 
Holy  Land.  There  were  calls  for  such  works  as  Sir 
C.  M.  Matson's  "Story  of  Jerusalem";  Ellsworth 
Huntington's  "Palestine  and  its  Transformation"; 
Henrietta  Szold's  "Recent  Jewish  Progress  in  Pal- 
estine" and  "A  Jewish  State"  by  Theodore  Herzl, 
the  father  of  the  Zionist  movement. 

The  first  two  requests  at  the  Camp  Merritt  Base 
Hospital  are  fairly  characteristic.  One  was  from  a 
boy  who  was  devouring  a  book  a  day;  he  wanted 
McGrath,  Oppenheim,  or  any  good  story  with  "some- 
thing doing."  The  second  was  from  a  man  of  evident 
education  and  background  for  books  on  the  war, 
particularly  upon  its  origin  and  significance.  During 
his  last  two  weeks  at  the  hospital  he  read,  among 
other  things,  Gerard's  "My  Four  Years  in  Germany," 
Usher's  "The  Winning  of  the  War,"  Dawson's 
"Carry  On,"  Wheeler's  "Book  of  Verse  of  the  Great 
War,"  Service's  "Rhymes  of  a  Red  Cross  Man"  and 
Hazen's  "Europe  since  1815."  A  rather  low-spirited 


READING  SOLDIERS  27 

boy  asked  for  a  book  that  would  give  him  "more 
pep."  Stephen  Crane's  "Red  Badge  of  Corn-age'*  was 
given  and  in  a  day  or  two  the  boy  came  back.  "Say, 
that  hit  me  just  right,"  he  said.  On  the  other  hand, 
one  man  noticing  the  case  marked  "War  Books" 
said  that  he  got  enough  war  all  week  and  that  he 
wanted  some  stories.  Many  others  were  of  the  same 
mind.  The  usual  tenor  of  the  requests  from  the  man 
who  has  been  across  is  that  any  story  will  be  all 
right  "if  it's  only  American,  that  is,  written  by  a 
Yank,  with  an  honest-to-God  American  girl  in  it.  No 
French  talk  in  it,  please,  and  the  scene  right  here  in 
America.  We  all  like  adventure,  you  know.  Funny, 
is  n't  it?  You'd  think  we'd  had  enough  of  that.  And, 
say,  if  you  have  a  Western  story,  that  would  be  fine." 

One  of  the  most  urgent  demands  of  returning 
overseas  convalescents  is  the  opportunity  of  finish- 
ing thrilling  tales  begun  and  left  behind  "Somewhere 
in  France."  One  lad  in  the  Camp  Dix  Base  Hospital 
had  been  looking  through  six  French  and  American 
hospitals  for  a  copy  of  "  Dora  Thorne,"  interrupted 
at  the  most  exciting  chapter  by  a  drive  on  the 
western  front.  This  was  no  moment  for  critical 
book  judgment,  said  the  hospital  librarian.  A  copy 
was  secured  for  him  parcel-post-haste,  and  received 
with  the  ecstatic  satisfaction  of  a  hope  long- 
deferred. 

The  library  records  at  one  camp  for  one  week 
show  that  1050  books  were  borrowed  by  the  men  in 
camp.  Of  these  548  were  works  of  fiction,  46  dealt 


28  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

with  war,  52  were  in  the  foreign  languages,  while  the 
balance,  404,  were  works  on  technical  military  prob- 
lems, educational  topics,  poetry,  art,  history  and 
general  literature.  These  figures  do  not  include  the 
large  number  of  books  placed  in  circulation  by  the 
various  branches  of  the  camp  library  at  the  Y.M.C.A, 
Y.W.C.A.,  Knights  of  Coltunbus,  and  hospital  build- 
ings. 

"  When  I  started  this  work,"  wrote  Mr.  Burton  E. 
Stevenson,  for  some  time  librarian  at  Camp  Sherman, 
"I  had  some  very  plausible  theories  about  the  kinds 
of  books  the  men  would  want;  but  I  soon  discarded 
them.  We  have  had  requests  here  for  every  sort  of 
book,  from  some  books  by  Gene  Stratton  Porter  to 
Boswell's  'Life  of  Johnson'  and  Bergson's  'Creative 
Evolution.'  We  have  had  requests  for  Ibsen's  plays; 
for  books  on  sewage  disposal;  and  so  many  requests 
for  *  A  Message  to  Garcia'  that  I  had  a  supply  mimeo- 
graphed. In  one  building  there  were  so  many  requests 
for  books  on  religion  and  ethics  that  we  set  up  a  small 
reference  collection.  Broadly  speaking,  of  course, 
most  of  the  men  read  fiction;  exciting,  red-blooded 
fiction,  —  detective  stories,  adventure  stories,  and 
so  on.  But  there  is  also  a  steady  demand  for  Conrad 
and  Wells  and  Hardy  and  Meredith.  Poetry  is  also 
in  demand,  and  good  books  of  travel  go  well.  The 
only  kind  of  books  we  don't  want  is  the  salacious, 
risque  sort  —  for  they  have  no  place  in  our  camp 
libraries.  And  we  don't  care  for  unattractive,  cheap 
editions,  with  yellow,  muddy  paper  and  flimsy  bind- 


READING  SOLDIERS  29 

ing.  We  want  attractive  books  —  nice,  clean  copies 
of  good  editions  —  and  the  more  of  these  we  get  the 
better  service  we  can  give  the  men." 

The  writers  that  seemed  to  be  the  most  popular 
were  O.  Henry,  Rex  Beach,  Zane  Grey,  John  Fox, 
Harold  Bell  Wright,  G.  B.  McCutcheon,  Jack  Lon- 
don, Chambers,  Conan  Doyle,  Mark  Twain,  E.  P. 
Oppenheim,  Kipling,  Poe,  Booth  Tarkington,  Rider 
Haggard,  Dumas,  and  H.  G.  Wells.  Some  of  the 
books  by  these  authors  never  got  to  the  shelves  as 
they  were  taken  out  by  readers  as  fast  as  they  were 
returned  to  the  charging  desk. 

At  Camp  Zachary  Taylor  a  soldier  came  in  to  re- 
new Mrs.  Barclay's  "Rosary,"  remarking  that  it  was 
the  finest  book  he  had  ever  read,  but  that  he  could  n't 
get  through  with  it  in  fourteen  days  to  save  his  life. 
The  book  was  renewed  and  his  chums,  who  also 
wanted  it,  had  to  wait  their  turn. 

Some  of  the  enlisted  men,  on  the  other  hand, 
showed  a  remarkable  capacity  for  rapid  reading. 
There  were  those  who  came  in  practically  every  day 
for  a  fresh  book.  One  patron  took  out  and  read  reg- 
ularly three  books  a  day,  until  a  soldier  in  another 
company  began  to  do  the  same.  The  first  man  then 
dropped  down  to  two  books  a  day,  feeling  that  the 
effort  to  maintain  his  supremacy  among  camp  book- 
worms was  too  great  a  tax  upon  his  endurance.  At 
Camp  Gordon  one  copy  of  Ralph  Connor's  "The 
Doctor"  circulated  forty-eight  times  in  one  month. 

There  was  an  amusing  rivalry  between  the  differ- 


80  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ent  units  as  to  which  was  the  best  educated.  Some  of 
the  men  tried  to  display  their  erudition  in  the  library. 
Said  a  soldier  to  a  camp  librarian:  "A  fellow  told 
me  about  a  book  to  read  by  Porter,  called  *The 
Thresher.'"  Gene  Stratton  Porter's  "The  Har- 
vester" was  given  him  and  found  to  be  what  he  was 
in  search  of. 

There  is,  as  might  be  expected,  a  loud  call  for  de- 
tective stories  and  tales  of  adventure.  The  men  want 
books  of  that  sort  which  they  have  read  before.  They 
find  relaxation  in  going  back  over  the  books  of  Conan 
Doyle,  Stevenson,  and  Weyman.  Time  being  at  a 
premium,  some  don't  care  to  risk  new  things  that 
they  are  not  sure  of,  but  prefer  to  go  back  to  the  old 
authors  with  whom  they  are  familiar.  A  young  lad 
who  had  been  in  the  hospital  for  over  a  year  asked 
for  a  copy  of  Thompson's  "Green  Mountain  Boys" 
and  after  keeping  it  for  some  time  said  to  the  libra- 
rian: "Please  ma'am,  can  I  keep  this  book  while  I 
stay  here?  I  would  rather  read  it  over  and  over  than 
anything  else  and  I  don't  feel  like  reading  very  often." 
Needless  to  say  the  request  was  granted  and  he  was 
assured  that  he  might  keep  the  book  as  long  as  he 
wished. 

Surprises  were  sometimes  in  store  for  the  librarian 
who  thought  that  the  men  would  care  only  for  fiction. 
A  librarian  starting  in  at  a  new  post  expected  that 
the  first  call  would  be  for  some  book  by  G.  B.  Mc- 
Cutcheon  or  Jack  London.  He  was  somewhat  taken 
aback  when  the  first  patron  asked  for  Shakespeare's 


READING  SOLDIERS  81 

"Pericles."  One  librarian  reported  that  90  per  cent 
of  his  circulation  was  non-fiction,  mostly  technical 
books  in  French,  historical  works,  and  "war-stuff." 

A  private  asked  for  a  late  book  on  electric  motors 
and  was  shown  what  the  camp  librarian  considered 
his  best  book  on  the  subject.  "Oh,  I  did  the  drawings 
for  that  book,"  said  he.  "I  want  something  better 
than  that!" 

Books  on  vocational  training,  and  technical  treat- 
ises on  military  science,  telegraphy,  gasoline  engines, 
signaling,  transportation,  and  other  subjects  are 
eagerly  studied  by  the  ambitious  officers.  The  libra- 
rian at  Camp  Upton  reported  that  officers  have  come 
to  the  library  for  help  in  the  technical  aspects  of  their 
particular  branch  of  the  service  and  have  expressed 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  good  propaganda  ma- 
terial in  building  up  the  morale  of  the  men. 

A  private  in  the  Engineers'  Corps  at  Camp  Devens 
asked  for  books  which  would  explain  the  psychology 
of  camouflage.  He  was  something  of  an  artist  and  had 
been  successful  with  color  photography.  He  wanted 
to  know,  for  example,  why  the  eye  fails  to  recognize 
a  shadow  when  light  patches  have  been  painted 
where  the  shadow  would  naturally  fall.  Material  was 
found  for  him  and  he  succeeded  in  hiding  guns  so 
well  with  paint  that  he  deceived  his  own  captain. 

At  the  Great  Lakes  Naval  Training  Station  the 
men  are  pursuing  systematic  studies  and  are  in  need 
of  special  books  in  mathematics,  engineering,  his- 
tory, and  the  languages. 


82  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

One  man  came  to  the  librarian  of  a  Texan  camp 
and  asked  if  by  any  chance  he  could  give  him  a  book 
from  which  he  could  get  the  various  treaties  and 
Hague  conferences  preceding  the  war.  He  was  going 
up  for  an  oflBcers*  examination  that  afternoon  and 
had  to  jam  these  dates  into  his  head  in  a  short  time. 
Hazen's  "Modem  European  History"  and  Sey- 
mour's "Diplomatic  Backgrounds'*  furnished  him 
the  necessary  data. 

The  first  requisition  slips  filled  out  at  Camp  Sher- 
man were  for  books  on  the  valuation  of  public  utili- 
ties, two  Dutch  books  wanted  by  a  Hollander,  books 
on  the  conservation  of  national  resources,  and  a 
Roumanian-English  dictionary.  The  librarian  was 
able  to  supply  all  but  the  last,  and  this  was  ordered 
by  headquarters. 

Another  camp  librarian  wrote  that  French  manuals, 
military  manuals  not  published  by  the  Government, 
books  on  aviation,  physical  training,  sanitation, 
bookkeeping,  simple  textbooks  of  English,  histories, 
and  books  about  the  stars  were  much  needed,  while 
from  another  camp  came  the  request  for  French 
magazines  and  French  songs.  A  special  interest  was 
manifested  in  books  of  travel  and  description  about 
France.  The  men  wanted  to  know  about  the  cus- 
toms of  the  country  they  expected  to  visit,  the  kind 
of  money  used  and  the  mode  of  Hfe. 

The  demand  for  Baedeker's  European  guide-books 
during  the  early  years  of  the  war  soon  exhausted  the 
stock  in  the  hands  of  the  American  booksellers.  With 


READING  SOLDIERS  8S 

our  entry  into  the  war,  it  was  impossible  to  import 
them  from  Germany,  yet  it  was  highly  desirable 
that  such  of  our  soldiers  as  were  going  abroad  should 
be  familiar  with  the  countries  which  they  were  to 
visit.  The  men  were  urged  to  read  these  guides,  es- 
pecially those  for  France,  England,  Belgium,  and 
Italy.  People  who  had  copies  responded  very  readily 
to  the  call,  feeling  that  by  giving  them  to  the  soldiers 
they  were  in  a  sense  turning  Germany's  own  guns 
against  her.  |  •   . 

Maps  were  studied  and  handled  until  they  were 
in  shreds.  A  group  of  a  dozen  men  was  frequently 
seen  aroimd  one  map.  The  men  not  only  wanted 
maps  of  their  home  district,  but  of  the  place  where 
they  were  and  the  places  where  they  had  reason  to 
believe  they  were  going,  including  the  maps  of  the 
scene  of  conflict.  Good  atlases  and  wall  maps  were 
supplied  to  all  the  camp  libraries.  The  post  route 
maps  of  the  various  States  in  which  the  different 
camps  were  located,  and  the  topographic  survey  maps 
of  the  immediate  vicinity  were  very  helpful  and 
popular  with  the  men. 

"Our  map  of  the  western  front  is  very  popular, 
with  its  ever-up-to-date  line,"  wrote  one  hospital 
librarian.  "I  fear  that  we  frequently  anticipate  ad- 
vances. One  officer  says  he  thinks  we  keep  the  army 
breathless.  The  overseas  men  stand  on  their  crutches 
and  hunt  up  the  places  where,  in  their  vernacular, 
'they  got  theirs'  and  then  follow  up  the  hospitals 
where  they  were  treated.". 


S4  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  most  popular  book  received  at  one  hospital 
library  was  a  geography.  As  soon  as  the  boxes  were 
opened  it  became  the  center  of  attraction,  and  at 
least  half  a  dozen  men  immediately  buried  themselves 
in  its  maps. 

MAGAZINES 

It  was  natural  that  there  should  be  a  great  call  for 
magazines  and  newspapers  from  the  military  camps, 
the  military  hospitals  and  the  men  overseas.  As  a 
means  of  supplying  this  demand  a  postal  regulation 
was  passed  permitting  the  public  to  send  the  cur- 
rent magazines  through  the  mail  to  the  camps 
by  affixing  a  one  cent  stamp  to  the  outside  cover. 
Neither  address  nor  wrapper  was  necessary.  These 
so-called  "Burleson  magazines"  were  distributed  by 
the  post  offices  according  to  a  definite  scheme.  At 
first  they  were  sent  to  Y.M.C.A.  secretaries.  Later 
on,  they  were  sorted  and  distributed  through  the 
camp  libraries.  The  result  was  a  vast  influx  of  pe- 
riodicals of  varying  degrees  of  suitability  for  the  pur- 
pose intended.  Some  well-intentioned  people  seemed 
to  have  no  idea  as  to  the  subjects  in  which  men  were 
interested.  Others  failed  to  distinguish  between  the 
literary  tastes  of  men  and  women. 

The  librarian  at  Camp  Funston  reported  in  the 
summer  of  1918  that  the  number  of  sacks  of  maga- 
zines of  all  ages  and  conditions  received  through  the 
postal  authorities  had  grown  from  about  twenty 
per  week  in  the  beginning  of  October,  1917,  to  five 


READING  SOLDIERS  35 

times  the  number,  —  more  than  they  could  use  to 
advantage.  The  librarian  at  Camp  Beauregard  said 
that  he  had  had  the  same  experience,  adding  that 
the  magazines  he  had  been  receiving  were  mostly 
such  as  were  undeliverable  to  the  addresses,  though 
some  were  specifically  for  the  camp.  "It  is  not  a 
choice  lot,"  said  he,  "and  the  latest  numbers  are 
few  and  far  between.  Very  few  are  the  more  expen- 
sive monthlies."  He  had  more  than  enough  of  back 
numbers,  he  said,  excepting  the  best  popular  maga- 
zines. What  he  needed  was  from  ten  to  twenty  sub- 
scriptions to  a  dozen  different  magazines,  so  that  he 
could  be  sure  of  receiving  them  regularly. 
For  a  time  there  was  a  deluge  of 

Socks  and  sardines 
And  old  magazines 

over  all  our  camps,  which  brings  to  mind  the  remark 
of  one  of  the  soldiers  in  the  trenches:  "We  are  up  to 
the  knees  in  mud  and  muflBers."  Magazines  might 
have  been  added.  Yet  the  oversupply  was  used  to 
advantage  at  times.  When  Camp  Bowie  was  quaran- 
tined for  three  weeks,  there  were  as  many  as  seven- 
teen hundred  patients  in  the  base  hospital  at  one 
time.  The  soldiers  were  not  allowed  to  use  library 
books  during  this  period  ai;id  the  gre^t  store  of  back 
magazines  which  had  previously  seemed  almost  a 
nightmare  to  the  camp  librarian,  came  into  an  un- 
expected usefulness.  All  available  copies,  except  those 
reserved  for  reference,  were  used  up,  even  down  to 
tjie  Ig-test  Sgturday  Evening  Post. 


86  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

One  camp  librarian,  struggling  with  tons  of  maga- 
zines, sent  quantities  of  them,  without  sorting,  to  the 
Y.M.C.A.  and  K.  of  C.  buildings,  to  barracks,  to 
oflScers*  clubs  and  base  hospitals  —  hoping  to  give 
the  men  a  variety  of  reading.  He  had  at  first  endeav- 
ored to  sort  by  titles  and  then  group  chronologically, 
but  gave  it  up  in  despair.  The  demand  was  rather 
for  the  current  month  or  the  weekly  issue,  or  simply 
for  a  "bunch  of  magazines."  Neither  of  these  calls 
is  served  the  better  by  elaborate  sorting.  One  group 
of  readers  will  ask  for  magazines  of  a  general  nature 
—  because  they  are  quickly  glanced  through  and 
thrown  aside  —  while  another  will  ask  for  books  — 
frequently  definite  titles  —  the  reading  of  which 
takes  considerable  time. 

At  Camp  Lee  as  many  as  twenty  sacks  of  "Burle- 
son mail,"  each  sack  weighing  over  one  hundred 
pounds,  were  sometimes  received  in  one  day.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  get  the  magazines  to  the  men 
for  whom  they  were  intended,  but  the  copies  of  the 
popular  weeklies  often  proved  to  be  altogether  too 
many  to  be  handled  properly.  At  Camp  Dix  the 
old  uncalled-for  magazines  were  sold  for  waste  paper 
and  the  proceeds  invested  in  copies  of  "Over  the 
Top,"  then  in  the  heyday  of  its  popularity,  —  even 
with  forty  copies  there  were  seldom  many  on  the 
shelf  at  one  time. 

In  one  of  the  barracks,  thirty  men  of  the  company 
subscribed  to  one  of  the  most  widely  circulated 
weeklies.  As  many  more  received  the  same  magazine, 


BURLESON  MAGAZINES  AT  THE  A.L.A.  CAMP  LIBRARIES 
Upper:  Camp  Custer.  Lower:  Camp  Lee 


READING  SOLDIERS  37 

directly  and  quite  promptly,  from  their  families. 
Naturally,  month-old  copies  of  that  particular 
weekly  were  not  much  in  demand  at  that  particular 
company  house.  Magazines  were  also  placed  on 
sale  at  the  post  exchanges  and  many  of  the  men 
who  bought  and  read  them  in  civil  life  continued  to 
buy  them  in  camp  as  the  current  numbers  came 
out. 

"As  for  the  Saturday  Evening  Post,'*  said  the  li- 
brarian at  Camp  Dix,  "we  are  deluged  with  them. 
I  do  not  doubt  for  a  minute  that  they  print  two  mil- 
lion copies  a  week,  for  I  handle  so  many  I  dream 
about  them  at  night.'* 

A  Syrian-bom  soldier  in  an  American  camp  was 
attracted  one  day  by  the  light  and  warmth  of  the 
camp  library.  He  entered  shyly  and  stole  up  to  the 
newspaper  files.  His  amazement  at  finding  a  Syrian 
paper  was  so  great  that  he  fairly  grabbed  it,  and  he 
read  it  through  from  beginning  to  end,  advertise- 
ments and  all.  The  next  day  he  reappeared,  leading 
three  other  Syrians.  They,  in  turn,  read  the  paper, 
handing  it  from  one  to  the  other.  The  news  appar- 
ently spread  throughout  the  companies  until  all  the 
Syrians  in  camp  heard  about  it.  From  that  time  on 
they  awaited  the  weekly  advent  of  their  home  paper 
as  eagerly  as  they  waited  for  the  letters  from  home. 

Magazines  in  French  were  in  constant  demand  by 
the  men  who  were  studying  the  language.  Subscrip- 
tions were  placed,  therefore,  for  the  Courtier  des  JStats 
Unis  to  be  sent  to  all  camp  libraries.  The  great 


38  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

demand,  however,  was  for  American  magazines.  For 
the  men  overseas  the  English  publications  did  not 
take  the  place  of  the  home  product.  The  "real 
American  magazine"  ranked  next  to  pie  and  ice- 
cream as  "looking  like  home"!  From  a  marine  sta- 
tion in  the  West  Indies  word  came:  "We  are  now 
receiving  copies  of  Everybody^ s^  National  Geographic, 
The  New  Republic,  and  Scientific  American  Supple- 
ment, and  we  do  surely  appreciate  the  same."  The 
men  working  on  the  tugs  in  Brest  Harbor  sent  a  dele- 
gation to  appeal  to  the  A.L.A.  librarian  on  one  of 
the  transports  for  some  American  magazines,  —  they 
were  not  particular  as  to  the  kind  nor  the  age.  A 
soldier  observing  a  hospital  librarian  with  a  punctured 
tire  asked:  "Isn't  this  the  car  that  brought  maga- 
zines to  my  section  during  the  flu  epidemic?  I  was 
down  with  it  and  never  was  so  lonesome  in  my  life. 
You  never  will  know  what  those  magazines  meant  to 
me.  I  'm  sure  glad  to  have  a  hand  in  changing  the 
tire  on  this  car." 

Those  who  were  too  sick  to  read  were  interested 
m  pictures  and  scrapbooks.  One  officer  on  a  milk  diet 
in  an  overseas  hospital  derived  much  pleasure  from 
looking  at  the  illustrated  menus  of  an  old  copy  of 
the  Ladies*  Home  Journal. 

One  of  the  most  welcome  gifts  received  at  Camp 
Devens  was  contributed  by  the  Wellesley  College 
Undergraduate  Periodical  League.  It  consisted  of 
subscriptions  for  twelve  copies  of  six  monthly  mag- 
azines and  six  weeklies.  These  were  distributed  to  the 


READING  SOLDIERS  39 

main  library,  the  Y.M.C.A.  huts,  and  the  Y.W.C.A. 
hostess  house. 

But  the  Library  War  Service  could  not  depend 
entirely  upon  donated  magazines.  While  those  de- 
voted to  fiction  need  not  be  new,  the  informational 
ones  must  be  up-to-date.  Consequently,  a  list  of 
forty-five  popular  and  technical  magazines  was  com- 
piled and  ordered  by  the  A.L.A.  for  all  the  camp 
libraries.  Another  list  of  eleven  magazines  was  pro- 
vided for  the  huts  of  any  organization  giving  library 
service.  To  meet  the  great  demand  for  newspapers,  the 
metropolitan  dailies  as  well  as  selected  papers  from 
different  sections  of  the  country  were  supplied  to  all 
camps.  The  call  for  magazines  from  overseas  was 
so  insistent  that  ten  tons  were  needed  each  month 
to  supply  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces. 


CHAPTER  m 

STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI 

It  is  an  undisputed  fact  that  the  men  in  the  Ameri- 
can army  are  returning  to  civil  life  far  better  edu- 
cated than  they  were  when  they  entered  the  service. 
In  the  accomplishment  of  this  result  the  camp  li- 
braries have  played  no  small  part.  They  have  been 
valuable  auxiliaries  to  the  courses  in  history,  civics, 
literature,  social  conditions,  geography,  and  practical 
science  conducted  by  the  Y.M.C.A.  in  the  various 
cantonments,  with  a  view  to  the  cultivation  of 
habits  of  study  and  reading.  The  method  employed 
in  carrying  on  this  work  was  a  combination  of  the 
preceptorial  system  and  the  university  extension 
idea.  Lecturers  Uved  in  the  camps  for  a  week  at  a 
time,  and  by  moving  from  building  to  building  con- 
veyed their  inspirational  message  to  the  entire  camp. 
Special  study  classes  under  local  volunteer  precep- 
tors were  also  formed,  and  reading  clubs  were  organ- 
ized to  guide  the  men  in  their  choice  of  literature.  A 
certificate  was  given  to  every  soldier  who  completed 
one  of  the  courses  outlined.  "It's  a  school!"  said  one 
man  about  his  camp. 

"The  American  Library  Association  cooperates 
in  this  educational  work  by  suggesting  correlative 
reading  and  supplying  the  books  required,"  said  Mr. 
Raymond  B.  Fosdick  in  Scribner*s  Magazine.  "The 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  41 

well-equipped  library  in  each  camp  thus  widens  its 
sphere  of  usefulness  beyond  merely  purveying  read- 
ing matter  for  entertainment,  legitimate  though  that 
sphere  may  be.  The  requirements  for  books  iii  the 
camp  libraries  are  more  specialized  than  in  ordinary 
city  libraries.  The  standard  as  a  whole  is  even  higher. 
Men  are  being  called  to  unaccustomed  tasks;  so  they 
are  doing  a  vast  amount  of  'reading  up.*  The  growth 
of  the  reading  habit  among  the  soldiers  has  brought 
to  light  an  interesting  contradiction  to  the  generally 
accepted  theory  that  among  a  group  of  individuals 
the  leveling  process  is  a  leveling  downward.  The  men 
in  the  camps  who  are  readers  stimulate  by  their 
example  the  interest  of  those  who  are  not.  *Have 
you  read  this  story?'  asks  Private  X  of  Private  Y. 
*Naw/  replies  Private  Y;  *I  never  read  a  book 
through  in  me  life.'  *Well,  y'  oughta  read  this  one. 
It's  better'n  any  movie  show  y'ever  saw.  It's  a 
bear!'  Thus  does  Private  Y  get  an  incentive  to  taste 
the  joys  of  literature.  There  is  a  tendency  toward  a 
leveling  upward." 

Many  men  have  been  glad  of  the  opportunity  to 
catch  up  on  general  reading,  and  others,  who  in  civil 
life  seldom  entered  a  library,  have  become  regular 
readers  of  history,  travel,  and  poetry. 

"I'll  venture  to  say  that  we've  got  one  of  the  best 
libraries  in  the  State,"  wrote  one  camp  librarian, "  and 
I  know  that  it's  used  far  more  than  any  other.  Many 
a  man  has  said  to  me,  *I*ve  done  more  reading  here 
than  I  ever  did  in  my  life.'  We  have  one  division 


42  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

headquarters  sergeant,  a  man  studying  to  be  an  in- 
terpreter, who  reads  a  book  every  day. 

"  The  men  in  camp  who  use  the  Hbrary  are  the  best 
advertisers  among  the  men  who  have  n't  yet  learned 
to  use  it.  One  of  our  mess-sergeants  is  a  joy  in  this 
respect;  he  Hues  out  its  advantages  to  every  new 
man  he  meets." 

A  man  at  Camp  Devens,  a  musician,  developed 
both  music  and  reading  among  his  associates.  He 
knew  that  he  was  doing  good  missionary  work, 
though  he  did  not  call  it  by  that  name,  "Anyhow," 
he  said,  "men  stay  at  the  barracks  and  read  evenings, 
instead  of  going  to  Lowell  and  coming  back  drunk." 

"I've  heard  of  William  Shakespeare  all  my  life, 
and  now  I  want  to  read  something  he  has  written," 
said  a  corporal.  A  copy  of  "Julius  Csesar"  was  at 
hand,  and  he  was  started  on  his  course  with  that.  He 
returned  regularly  to  complete  the  reading  of  the 
other  plays. 

The  librarian  at  Camp  Greene  had  requests  for 
Horace  in  the  original  and  in  English.  Spencer's 
"Sociology"  circulated  regularly  there,  as  did  also 
James's  "Pragmatism."  Several  men  wanted  to  read 
Ibsen,  either  in  the  original  or  in  translation. 

The  following  list  showing  the  non-fiction  circula- 
tion from  the  main  library  building  at  Camp  Hum- 
phreys on  an  oppressively  hot  Sunday  in  August 
is  a  fair  index  of  the  extent  to  which  the  men 
were  making  use  of  the  facilities  for  constructive 
reading:  Cook,  "Life  of  Robert  E.  Lee";  Empey, 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  43 

"Over  the  Top";  Callahan,  "George  Washington, 
the  Man  and  the  Mason";  Bond,  "Pick,  Shovel, 
and  Pluck"  (practical  engineering);  Irvin  Cobb, 
"Paths  of  Glory";  Moss,  "Army  Paper  Work"; 
Hazen,  "Europe  since  1815";  Patterson,  "With  the 
Zionists  at  Gallipoli";  War  Department  publication, 
"Tests  of  Metals  for  1916";  Ruggeri,  "Office  Prac- 
tice"; Benjamin  Franklin,  "Poor  Richard's  Al- 
manac"; Moss,  "Manual  of  Military  Training"; 
McLaglen,  "Bayonet  Fighting";  Prior,  "Operation 
of  Trains";  Huard,  "My  Home  in  the  Field  of 
Honor." 

By  means  of  books  which  he  obtained  from  the 
camp  library  a  man  at  Camp  Lee  was  able  to  fol- 
low the  coiu'ses  in  contemporary  literature  which  his 
wife  was  taking  at  the  University  of  Washington. 
A  young  man  in  the  aviation  section  in  California 
was  obliged  to  go  to  a  hospital  for  an  operation  a  few 
weeks  before  the  date  of  his  final  examination.  He 
was  much  distressed  until  the  hospital  librarian 
assured  him  that  he  would  be  supplied  with  all  the 
textbooks  and  reference  books  he  needed.  He  spent 
his  convalescence  reading,  and  passed  his  examin- 
ation on  the  appointed  date.  One  camp  librarian 
procured  a  Greek  Testament  for  a  man  who  had 
been  studying  for  the  ministry  but  had  waived  his 
exemption  claim. 

"I  was  on  duty  all  day  Simday,  for  a  stretch  of 
about  fourteen  hours,  and  the  caliber  of  the  work 
on  that  day  was  worthy  of  any  university  Kbrary  in 


44  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

this  country,"  wrote  Samuel  H.  Ranck  from  Camp 
Custer,  in  May,  1918. 

The  educational  director  at  Camp  MacArthur  re- 
ported that  French  books  and  magazines,  especially 
those  containing  illustrations,  and  French  coins  and 
phonograph  records  would  be  of  much  service  in  the 
twenty-three  French  classes  in  the  camp. 

A  private  in  a  Texas  camp  asked  for  books  on  in- 
tensive agriculture.  When  questioned  as  to  why  he 
was  interested  in  this  special  subject  he  replied :  "  I  'm 
a  farmer.  My  dad  has  a  truck-farm  just  outside  of 
Houston,  and  he  sent  me  to  an  agricultural  school  to 
learn  up-to-date  methods.  I've  simply  got  to  read 
these  things  and  keep  up  to  date,  so  that  when  I  get 
through  soldiering  I'll  know  how  to  handle  a  culti- 
vator. And  say,  —  have  you  got  David  Grayson's 
'Adventures  in  Contentment'?" 

"Do  you  supply  books  on  any  subject.?  "  was  asked 
of  one  hbrarian. 
.  "Yes,  as  far  as  possible,"  was  the  reply. 

"Could  you  get  me  something  on  embalming?  In 
civil  hfe  I  am  an  undertaker." 
•  The  Undertaker's  Review  was  promptly  secured  for 
him. 

"Have  you  any  books  on  cost  accounting?"  asked 
a  soldier  at  the  Camp  Custer  library.  "That  was  my 
line  before  coming  here,  and  if  I  come  back  when  we 
get  through  with  this  war  I  don't  want  to  start  in  all 
over  again.  I  want  to  keep  up  with  my  line  while 
working  for  Uncle  Sam." 


h3   .2 


s 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  45 

"I'd  like  to  get  a  book  on  hog  raising,"  said  an- 
other. "I'm  reading  up  on  farming.  No  more  indoor 
work  for  me  when  I  get  through  with  this  thing. 
After  Camp  Custer  the  outdoor  life  is  the  life  for 
me." 

"Let  me  see  your  latest  book  on  the  nutritive 
value  of  foods,"  said  a  third.  "I'm  from  the  Cooks' 
and  Bakers'  school,  and  I  must  keep  up  to  date  in 
my  lectures  on  the  rationing  of  men."  At  Chick- 
amauga  Park,  where  there  was  another  school  for 
cooks  and  bakers,  the  most  popular  book  was  the 
Boston  Cooking-School  Cook  Book. 

A  private  at  Camp  Greene  said  that  he  valued  the 
library  as  he  did  his  pay  check.  The  latter  kept  him 
in  tobacco,  while  the  former  kept  him  in  touch  with 
his  trade  so  that  after  the  war  he  would  be  able  to  go 
back  with  an  up-to-date  knowledge  of  automobile 
repairing  and  garage  work.  He  added  that  he  had 
found  in  the  books  many  interesting  things  which  he 
had  often  hunted  for  but  had  never  before  been  able 
to  locate. 

"By  Jove,  maybe  I'll  get  that  job  yet!"  shouted 
a  boy  in  one  of  the  hospitals,  when  he  received  a 
shorthand  book  he  had  wanted.  A  young  fellow  at 
the  telephone  exchange  said  he  had  been  given  the 
job  of  laying  out  the  hospital  grounds,  and  asked  for 
a  book  on  landscape  gardening,  which  was  requisi- 
tioned from  headquarters. 

A  stalwart  young  professional,  convalescing  in  an- 
other hospital,  was  quite  indifferent  to  the  attrac- 


46  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

tions  of  the  perambulating  book-stand,  saying  he 
knew  there  wasn't  anything  on  boxing,  and  that 
was  the  only  thing  he  was  interested  in. 

When  the  librarian  came  back  the  next  morning 
with  the  latest  illustrated  red-covered  edition  of  the 
Spalding  Athletic  Library  volume  on  "Boxing"  he 
accepted  it  somewhat  gingerly,  doubtful  of  its  qual- 
ity. After  a  brief  critical  survey  he  announced,  "It's 
all  right!"  And  before  the  librarian  left  the  ward  he 
had  waxed  so  enthusiastic  over  its  contents  that  he 
was  moved  to  show  her  his  most  precious  treasure. 
This  was  a  wooden  cigar-box  containing  personal 
letters  from  the  leading  light-weight  champions  of 
America.  Each  letter-head  bore  in  large  type  the 
name  and  record  of  some  hero  of  the  ring,  with  a 
full-length  portrait.  "I  remember  with  clearness," 
says  the  librarian,  "the  belligerent  figure  of  'Harlem 
Eddie  Kelly  —  Twentieth  Century  Speed  Marvel,* 
the  special  pal  of  my  boxing  friend,  who,  as  I  left  the 
room,  was  already  lost  in  the  satisfying  pages  of  the 
book  he  did  n't  beUeve  existed." 

"The  most  unexpected  request,"  wrote  another 
hospital  Kbrarian,  "came  from  a  very  restless  man 
who  was  engaged  in  picking  out  odd  numbers  of  the 
theatrical  magazines  from  my  pile  of  miscellaneous 
gift  periodicals.  Suddenly  he  turned  around  and  de- 
manded something  on  paleontology,  of  a  date  at 
least  as  recent  as  1916,  preferably  Osbom's  *  Origin 
and  Evolution  of  Life.'  He  was  quite  evidently  up  to 
date  on  the  subject,  knew  the  recognized  authorities, 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  47 

and  was  familiar  with  the  resources  of  the  New  York 
Public  Library  and  the  Museum  of  Natural  History. 
We  have  asked  one  of  the  neighboring  public  libraries 
to  lend  us  the  book  for  a  short  time." 
>>  A  young  man  about  to  embark  for  parts  unknown 
asked  the  camp  librarian  whether  he  might  not  have 
one  of  Shakespeare's  plays  to  take  with  him.  "A 
fellow  has  to  have  something  good  to  read  on  the 
ship,"  he  said.  When  given  several  plays  he  was 
delighted.  '     ' 

Walter  Camp,  the  divisional  athletic  director  at 
Camp  Hancock,  Georgia,  asked  through  the  camp 
librarian  for  a  few  books  describing  games  which 
could  be  played  by  groups  of  from  one  hundred  to 
one  thousand  men  at  a  time. 

Books  of  psychological  tests  were  popular.  The 
men  were  put  through  these  tests  in  their  examina- 
tions, and  liked  to  try  them  on  each  other.  Occasion- 
ally the  hbraries  were  called  upon  to  settle  bets.  A 
man  would  come  to  the  desk  with  a  reference  ques- 
tion, look  up  the  answer,  grin,  and  say,  "Knew  I  was 
right!  My  five  dollars!'* 

One  librarian  was  rather  puzzled  by  a  colonel  who 
showed  a  remarkable  interest  in  every  life  of  Andrew 
Jackson  that  could  be  found  for  him,  until  he  learned 
that  the  man  was  a  great-nephew  of  "Old  Hickory." 

Many  of  the  requests  showed  a  pathetic  craving 
for  knowledge.  A  sixteen-year-old  Jackie  approached 
a  camp  librarian  with  Spencer's  "First  Principles" 
in  his  hand.  "Say,"  said  he,  "could  a  fellow  learn  to 


48  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

know  poetry  if  he  should  read  this?  My  brother 
writes  poetry,  and  I  want  to  learn  to  know  it." 

"You  and  your  friends  cannot  do  too  much  for 
these  soldiers/*  wrote  the  librarian  at  Camp  Pike. 
"The  drafted  men  are,  in  many  cases,  suffering  a 
rude  shock  in  the  strange  conditions  that  now  sur- 
round them.  Many  of  them  were  men  of  importance 
in  their  communities  and  not  a  few  show  gentle 
breeding,  but  they  are  herded  together  here,  all  sorts 
and  conditions  together  in  one  barrack  building, 
standing  in  line,  two  hundred  and  twenty  of  them 
with  their  tin  cans  at  meal-time,  sleeping  on  cots  not 
three  feet  apart,  and  doing  all  the  rough  work  of  the 
camp.  The  work  is  necessary,  of  course,  and  the 
men  do  little  complaining,  but  many  of  them  have 
the  blues.  I  must  not  leave  the  impression  that  I 
think  this  experience  a  bad  thing  for  these  fellows. 
I  do  not.  In  the  end  they  will  be  better  men  than 
they  ever  were  —  harder  physically,  more  alert, 
more  forceful,  and  in  every  way  more  mature.  The 
army  is  making  efficients  out  of  inefficients,  strong 
men  out  of  weaklings,  and  those  who  come  back 
from  this  war  will  be  far  more  effective  citizens  than 
they  would  otherwise  have  been." 

MILITARY  SCIENCE 

That  the  officers  and  men  in  the  training  camps 
were  diligent  students  of  military  science  was  shown 
by  the  constant  use  made  of  the  military  manuals 
and  other  books  on  the  science  of  war  in  the  camp 


o 
is 


-    ^ 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  49 

libraries.  On  a  typical  day  at  Camp  Meade,  where 
the  military  collection  numbered  several  thousand 
volumes,  it  was  foimd  that  more  than  a  quarter  of 
the  books  drawn  for  use  in  the  barracks  were  on 
military  science.  One  of  the  librarian's  requests  was 
for  copies  of  all  the  various  manuals  put  out  for  the 
use  of  officers  by  the  War  Department  —  at  least  for 
all  those  which  were  not  confidential.  Many  men 
wanted  to  learn  a  particular  branch  so  that  they 
might  become  non-commissioned  officers  or  even  take 
examinations  to  become  officers. 

"To  illustrate  how  seriously  the  American  soldier 
takes  his  business  at  present,"  wrote  one  librarian, 
"Empey's  *  First  Call'  did  not  circulate  until  I  re- 
classified it  as  'military  science.'  The  technical  books 
of  warfare  are  far  more  in  demand  than  other  non- 
fiction.  Books  on  machine-gunnery,  automobiles,  and 
artillery  are  read  more  than  tibe  infantry  manuals. 
Men  on  the  rifle  range  read  eagerly  books  on  sniping 
and  scouting.  With  the  exception  of  military  science, 
mathematics  is  in  the  lead  among  the  non-fiction. 
What  they  study  chiefly  is  elementary  algebra  and 
plane  geometry." 

At  Camp  MacArthur  there  was  a  military  collec- 
tion of  some  two  thousand  volumes,  together  with 
about  two  thousand  more  books  relating  to  the  war 
—  fiction,  history,  and  personal  narratives.  Although 
there  were  over  a  hundred  copies  of  Moss's  "In- 
fantry Drill  Regulations"  the  demand  often  outran 
the  supply.  At  one  time  the  librarian  reported  the. 


50  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

arrival  of  sixteen  thousand  new  Signal  Corps  men, 
and  said  that  in  consequence  he  had  a  great  call  for 
books  on  aeronautics.  As  the  Signal  Corps  section 
was  located  three  miles  from  the  main  library  he  felt 
that  many  of  the  needed  volumes  should  be  dis- 
tributed through  the  traveling  libraries.  Ten  copies 
of  each  title  from  an  approved  list  were  sent  to  this 
camp. 

The  librarian  at  the  Williamsbridge  Hospital,  New 
York,  one  day  had  a  request  for  books  on  radio; 
knowing  that  she  had  little  material  and  would  need 
to  order  more  she  asked  the  soldier-patient  to  check 
in  recent  numbers  of  the  A.L.A.  "Booklist"  the 
titles  he  specially  wanted.  He  did  so.  Other  men 
checked  titles  of  books  on  gas-engines,  mechanics, 
and  engineering,  and  the  "Bookhst"  became  one  of 
the  most  popular  magazines  in  the  hospital. 

The  announcement  of  the  establishment  of  a  vet- 
erinary school  at  Camp  Lee  meant  to  A.L.A.  head- 
quarters that  an  urgent  call  for  books  on  veterinary 
science  was  to  be  expected  from  this  particular 
camp. 

There  was  almost  nothing  procurable  in  the  line 
of  books  on  the  use  of  pigeons  in  modem  warfare, 
and  the  men  were  quick  to  comment  on  the  lack. 
"Your  books  on  pigeons  are  not  what  we  need,"  said 
a  man  at  Camp  Custer.  "We  want  something  prac- 
tical on  the  care  and  training  of  homing  pigeons. 
Most  of  the  books  are  for  fanciers,  and  they  are  no 
good  in  the  school  of  the  pigeon  loft,  where  we  are 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  51 

training  pigeons  for  military  service  and  being  taught 
to  train  and  care  for  them." 

A  request  which  required  considerable  time  for 
weighing  of  titles  came  from  an  officer  at  Camp  Lee, 
who  was  anxious  to  have  a  few  books  for  the  guard- 
house, —  books  which  would  help  inspire  respect  for 
military  authority  on  the  part  of  the  men  who  had 
been  guilty  of  breaches  of  discipline. 

"I'd  like  to  have  this  renewed  for  two  weeks,"  was 
the  request  of  a  man  returning  a  book  he  had  bor- 
rowed. "Reading  about  the  chemistry  of  modem 
high  explosives  does  n't  go  very  fast  after  a  hard 
day's  work  in  the  field  —  and  besides,  this  is  a  big 
book." 

At  Camp  Jackson  books  on  field  artillery  led  the 
demand.  An  officer  would  appear  at  the  library  and 
say,  "The  Commanding  Officer  tells  me  I  am  to  do 
this,  and  I  don't  feel  very  wise  about  it.  Have  n't  you 
some  good  books  to  help  me  out?"  Non-commis- 
sioned officers  and  privates  were  constant  visitors  at 
the  library,  saying  that  their  lieutenants  had  sent 
them  there  to  get  certain  information. 

It  was  expected  that  the  technical  literature  ac- 
cumulated in  the  camp  libraries  would  be  of  prime 
importance  in  the  work  of  intensive  training  in 
schools  and  colleges  of  men  in  camps  or  about  to  be 
called  to  the  camps  and  of  registrants  under  the 
selective  draft  act  which  was  planned  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  Education  and  Special  Training,  but  with 
the  Armistice  there  naturally  came  a  decided  drop 


52  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

in  the  call  for  military  books,  with  a  correspondingly 
increased  demand  for  books  on  "the  job  back  home." 

THE  UNEDUCATED 

Through  the  camp  libraries  many  men  who  lacked 
all  formal  education  came  in  contact  with  books  for 
the  first  time.  Some  had  to  be  taught  to  use  them. 
Others  needed  directing  in  their  choice  of  reading. 
To  all,  the  intelligent  and  sympathetic  assistance  of 
trained  library  workers,  interested  in  their  intellec- 
tual progress  and  in  their  every-day  problems,  was 
a  great  help. 

As  a  camp  librarian  was  looking  at  a  "First 
Reader  in  English"  and  trying  to  decide  what  to  do 
with  it,  a  Y.M.C.A.  man  saw  the  questioning  look 
and  said:  "If  you  want  to  keep  that  book  for  your 
library,  better  not  put  it  on  the  open  shelves." 

"Why?"  asked  the  librarian. 

"Well,  there  are  a  good  many  men  here  who  do 
not  know  the  rudiments  of  English  and  are  ashamed 
of  the  fact.  They  would  take  a  book  like  that  off 
the  shelves  without  leaving  any  card  because  they 
would  not  want  to  have  it  known  that  they  were  so 
ignorant  of  the  common  tongue." 

A  Y.M.C.A.  man  working  on  the  troop  trains 
which  carried  soldiers  from  their  homes  to  the  train- 
ing camps  offered  a  magazine  to  one  of  the  men,  who 
twice  declined  it.  When  he  was  told  that  if  he  did 
not  care  to  read  it  on  the  train  he  might  take  it  with 
him  and  read  it  in  camp  he  looked  up  pathetically 


<  to 

X  .5 

W  "^ 

H  g 

<  ■? 

o 

o  •? 

o  "a; 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  5S 

and  replied,  "I  can't  read."  The  Y.M.C.A.  man  sat 
down  beside  him  and  asked  whether  he  might  not 
write  a  message  home  for  him.  The  offer  was  accepted. 
The  "rookie"  was  advised  to  look  up  the  Y.M.C.A. 
as  soon  as  he  reached  camp  and  get  into  one  of  the 
schools  where  they  would  teach  him  to  read  and  write 
before  he  returned  home. 

At  Camp  Gordon,  while  the  majority  of  the  illiter- 
ates were  from  New  York  City  and  included  French, 
Italians,  Jews,  Lithuanians,  Ruthenians,  and  Poles, 
there  were  also  a  good  many  of  American  birth  who 
came  from  the  Connecticut  mills,  in  which  their 
lives  had  been  spent  since  early  boyhood.  An  order 
was  issued  that  they  should  attend  night  school  for 
an  hour  every  evening.  For  these  men  study  was  as 
much  a  part  of  daily  routine  as  drill. 

At  one  camp  nearly  all  the  four  thousand  colored 
troops  were  enrolled  in  the  different  classes.  Ele- 
mentary English  classes  were  popular  and  educa- 
tional lectures  were  well  attended.  The  officers  of  the 
colored  companies  insisted  that  their  men  should 
learn  to  read  and  write.  Many  men  became  inter- 
ested in  the  study  of  mathematics  and  French.  In 
several  of  the  cantonments  a  large  number  of  colored 
officers  were  enrolled. 

The  librarian  of  the  Base  Hospital  at  Fort  Sam 
Houston  reported  that  one  of  the  most  difficult 
pupils  she  had  was  a  native  American  who  was 
struggling  with  the  alphabet,  of  which  he  knew  only 
the  first  letter. 


54  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"As  far  as  educational  work  goes,  we  have  our 
hands  full,"  said  a  letter  from  one  of  the  canton- 
ments in  the  Southwest.  "Just  a  few  weeks  ago 
several  thousand  drafted  men  from  Arkansas  reached 
camp.  The  great  majority  of  them  could  not  read  or 
write,  and  in  fact  were  really  getting  out  in  the  world 
for  the  first  time." 

Among  the  "squatters"  in  Florida  are  many 
famihes  in  which  the  children  are  unable  to  read 
and  the  parents  do  not  wish  to  have  them  learn. 
Periodicals  which  have  been  sent  to  these  people 
have  been  returned  to  the  senders,  the  parents  argu- 
ing that  if  their  children  read  these  magazines  and 
looked  at  the  alluring  illustrations  they  would  be- 
come dissatisfied  with  their  surroundings.  Then  came 
the  draft  and  took  the  young  men  out  of  their  satis- 
fied but  wretched  state  and  gave  them  their  first 
glimpse  of  the  outside  world.  To  such  the  libraries  and 
the  educational  opportunities  were  a  priceless  boon. 

Some  of  the  Georgia  "crackers"  when  asked  on 
being  registered  what  their  names  were  would  say 
"Sonny"  or  "Bobby."  In  reply  to  further  prodding 
as  to  family  names  they  pleaded  ignorance  of  a 
knowledge  of  anything  but  the  family  nickname. 
There  were  men  who  did  not  know  enough  to  answer 
to  their  names  at  roll  call.  Many  illiterate  whites, 
blacks,  Indians,  and  half-breeds  were  taught  to  read 
and  write  in  the  cantonments.  Great  strapping  fel- 
lows as  they  were,  they  had  to  be  treated  as  school 
children  in  matters  of  intelligence. 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  55 

Think  what  the  new  military  life  meant  to  such  as 
these!  The  draft  took  them  suddenly  out  of  their  old 
environment  and  in  place  of  civil  liberty  smrounded 
them  with  military  restraint,  but  at  the  same  time 
opened  up  to  them  vast  new  fields  of  opportunity 
for  education  and  development. 

The  reverse  of  the  picture  is  equally  interesting. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  new  American  army  con- 
tained 45,000  students  from  the  576  colleges  of  the 
country.  In  Camp  Devens  alone,  there  were  695 
college  men,  representing  27  New  England  higher 
institutions  of  learning.  From  the  first  these  men 
exerted  a  marked  influence  upon  their  messmates, 
many  of  whom  were  former  mill  operatives  from  the 
textile  centers  of  ^  New  England.  The  presence  of 
these  academically  trained  men  meant  a  call  for 
special  classes  of  books  in  the  camp  Kbraries.  Some 
colleges  gave  credits  for  studying  done  in  the  camps, 
and  needless  to  say,  the  Library  War  Service  ad- 
ministration was  desirous  of  supplying  the  books 
needed. 

CANADIAN  KHAKI  COLLEGE 

An  interesting  educational  experiment  was  carried 
on  at  Witley  Camp,  occupied  by  some  of  the  Cana- 
dian forces  in  England.  There  the  Hbrary  hut  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  and  the  three  adjacent  huts  were  handed 
over  by  the  authorities  for  educational  purposes  and 
became  the  pioneer  college  of  the  "  Canadian  Khaki 
University." 


56  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Well-filled  bookcases  extended  across  the  end  of 
the  library  hut,  while  tables  and  chairs  occupied  two 
thirds  of  its  length.  An  alcove  was  reserved  for  oflBcers 
and  the  college  staff,  and  a  small  room  served  as  liv- 
ing and  sleeping  quarters  for  the  oflScer  in  charge. 
All  the  classes  were  originally  held  in  the  library 
hut,  but  as  that  came  to  be  filled  to  overflowing  a 
second  and  then  a  third  hut  was  added.  "Credits" 
were  given  for  work  properly  done  in  the  various 
courses  in  English,  French,  the  classics,  mathematics, 
and  agriculture.  The  teaching  was  at  first  volunteer 
work,  but  was  later  made  a  part  of  the  military  duties 
of  those  engaged  in  it. 

The  "Canadian  Khaki  College,"  the  prospectus 
stated,  was  organized  "to  enable  all  Canadian  troops, 
in  England  or  France,  to  utilize  their  spare  time  in 
improving  their  education  and  in  fitting  themselves 
to  occupy  upon  return  to  Canada  more  important 
and  lucrative  positions  in  civil  life." 

"I  think  I  shall  go  back  to  school,"  has  been  the 
answer  made  by  many  a  Canadian  soldier  when 
asked  the  usual  question  as  to  his  after-the-war 
plans.  Many  of  the  lads  went  back  to  school  while 
still  in  the  ranks,  for  there  was  another  Canadian  Sol- 
diers' College  at  Seaford  in  Sussex,  near  Brighton, 
where  there  were  classes  in  engineering,  agriculture, 
and  the  humanities.  There  was  a  class  in  modem 
Italian,  and  a  larger  one  in  Spanish,  for  Canadians 
are  keenly  interested  in  the  development  of  Mexico 
and    South  America.  Provision  was  made  for  all 


X 

w 

in 

02 

t3 

OQ 

♦\ 

Q 

« 

O 

fo 

^ 

H 

^-, 

CC 

,^ 

2 

O 

> 

s 

a 

•4 

:s 

O 

CS 

»s 

Ol 

CO 

W 

_fl 

I— 1 

Q 

S 

J 

OQ 

O 

9 

«^   Q 

8 

^  12; 

«-■ 

<i  <J 

o 

1 

> 

<i 

4J 

o 

w 

& 

K 

(« 

H 

(; 

O 

fc 

«M 

O 

1 

{H 

'O 

« 

§ 

^ 

1* 

m 

S 

H-t 

*j 

J 

c8 

« 

M 

a 

H 

!?; 

M 

P3 

H 

12; 

« 

O 

o 

STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  57 

classes  of  men,  from  those  with  the  mere  rudiments 
of  an  education  to  university  undergraduates  and 
those  preparing  for  matriculation.  Examinations 
were  held  and  certificates  given,  and  men  were  helped 
to  complete  an  interrupted  academic  course  and  to 
prepare  themselves  for  satisfactory  positions  after 
the  war.  Grown  men,  learned  in  some  craft  or  other 
but  deficient  in  the  three  R's,  here  mastered  the  in- 
tricacies of  reading  so  as  to  make  out  the  orders  on 
the  bulletin  boards,  write  their  own  letters,  and  look 
after  their  accounts.  At  the  other  end  of  the  scale 
were  the  enthusiastic  soldier  students  who  covered 
three  months  of  university  work  in  six  weeks.  For 
all  this,  books  were  needed,  and  the  college  library 
was  drawn  upon  daily  by  the  students  in  khaki. 

STUDYING  FRENCH 

In  the  summer  of  1918  there  were  over  one  hun- 
dred thousand  soldiers  in  the  United  States  studying 
French.  To  aid  them  in  the  intensive  work  which 
they  must  do  in  order  to  fit  themselves  for  service  in 
France,  the  A.L.A.  bought  thousands  of  manuals, 
texts,  and  dictionaries.  Many  helpful  language  aids 
were  presented  by  interested  friends.  Some  of  the 
numerous  books  on  the  study  of  French  bear  the  im- 
print of  such  authoritative  bodies  as  the  National 
Security  League,  the  United  States  Marine  Corps 
Publicity  Bureau,  and  the  United  States  War  De- 
partment. 

The  man  who  studied  French  in  college  found  his 


58  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

knowledge  of  the  language  "flat,  stale,  and  unprof- 
itable" until  he  familiarized  himself  with  the  in- 
tricacies of  its  idioms  and  acquired  a  well-stocked 
vocabulary  of  the  trench  French  in  common  use. 

We  are  told  that  some  of  the  British  oflBcers, 
conscious  of  their  shortcomings  as  linguists,  leave 
speaking  French  to  "Tommy,"  who  is  less  diffident 
about  displaying  his  accomplishments.  His  distortion 
of  the  language  makes  up  for  its  lack  of  elegance  by 
a  certain  aptness.  In  his  use  of  new  expressions  he 
tries  to  copy  his  versatile  French  comrade.  The 
"poilu"  styles  the  priest  "  le  corbeau"  his  black  cas- 
sock giving  him  the  appearance  of  the  somber  bird; 
hospital  beds  he  calls  *'les  pageots,'*  and  with  equal 
lack  of  feeling  he  dubs  the  surgical  table  '*le  billiard.** 
**Les  boyaux**  he  uses  for  trenches  of  communication; 
"le  bronze"  for  artillery  regiments.  The  German 
soldiers  he  names  "tawpes**  (moles).  A  bayonet  he 
christens  "wn  cure-dents**  (a  toothpick)  or  "un  tire- 
boche"  with  a  play  on  "tire-bouchxm**  (a  corkscrew), 
or  **un  toume-bouche,'*  pimning  with  "toumebroche** 
(a  kitchen  utensil).  The  mitrailleuse  is  called  the 
"coffee  grinder."  A  man  of  short  stature  is  said  to 
be  loin  du  del,  "far  from  heaven."  Rosalie  is  French 
for  the  bayonet,  and  zigouiller  un  Boche  is  to  bayonet 
a  German.  Boulot  (a  log  of  wood)  somehow  came  to 
mean  "good  work."  Thus,  les  artiflots  ontfait  du  bon 
boulot  means  "  the  artillerymen  did  fine  work."  "  Toots 
sweet**  is  Tommy's  French  for  "hurry  up,"  "look 
smart."  Wipers  is  his  name  for  Ypres;  sometimes  he 


STUDENTS  IN  KHAKI  59 

calls  it  Yeeps.  Panam  is  his  affectionate  name  for 
Paris;  but  he  also  calls  it  Pantruche,  and  a  Parisian  a 
Pantruchard.  Armenti^res  is  called  Armenteers;  Bal- 
leul  becomes  Ballyall;  Hazebrouck  is  pronounced 
Hazyhrooky  and  Ploegsteert  is  anglicized  into  Plug 
Street.  *^ Napoo''  is  said  when  he  has  an  elegant  suf- 
ficiency and  pushes  his  plate  away.  It  is  also  argot  for 
"there  is  no  more,"  "it's  all  gone,"  "to  put  an  end 
to,"  and  "to  stop."  The  word  is  probably  a  corrup- 
tion of  "iZ  n'y  a  plus."  Ian  Hay  says  that  it  also 
means  "not  likely"  or  "nothing  doing"  and  that 
by  a  further  development  it  has  come  to  mean  "done 
for,"  "finished,"  and  in  extreme  cases  "dead."  "Poor 
Bill  got  na-poohed  by  a  rifie  grenade  yesterday,"  a 
mourning  friend  would  say.  ** Napoo  fini"  expresses 
gone,  through  with,  finished,  disappeared.  *'Sani- 
fairyann"  is  an  anglicization  of  Cela  nefait  rien  and 
means  (to  Tommy)  the  same  as  "napoo."  "Jake" 
expresses  satisfaction.  If  a  girl  is  pretty,  she  is  "  jake"; 
if  a  stew  tastes  good,  it  is  "jake."  It  is  presumably  an 
anglicization  of  "chic."  It  is  the  opposite  of  "napoo." 
Tonuny  also  found  a  new  phrase  to  take  the  place  of 
the  cheerful  but  outworn  expression  "I  should  worry." 
It  is  **C'est  la  guerre"  or  as  an  American  would  put 
it,  "That's  war."  Every  discomfort  or  peril  of  the 
soldier's  life  could  be  set  at  naught  by  this  philo- 
sophical remark.  Was  a  dug-out  bombed  or  a  parapet 
blown  away?  C'est  la  guerre.  Was  the  mud  thigh  deep? 
C'est  la  guerre. 
Apres  la  guerre  was  Tommy's  definition  of  Heaven. 


60  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

''Compray"  was  trench  for  "Do  you  understand?" 
and  was  universally  used  in  the  trenches.  "Du  pan** 
was  Tommy's  word  for  bread.  "Der  uffs**  he  said 
when  he  wanted  two  eggs. 

"They  say  that  French  is  the  easiest  language  in 
the  world,"  a  loyal  Lancastrian  remarked.  "Rot! 
Give  me  Lancashire  every  day;  anybody  can  imder- 
stand  that!"  Tommy  says  that  his  objection  to 
French  is  based  on  the  fact  that  you  spell  it  one 
way  and  speak  it  another.  Tommy  is  sometimes 
very  fluent,  but  it  takes  an  expert  to  understand  his 
French. 

The  pictiu*esqueness  of  Tommy's  slang  is  only 
equaled  by  that  of  the  "poilu"  with  his  genius  for 
expression.  Coffee,  his  all-important  beverage,  he 
has  christened  "jus'*  (juice),  and  the  English  "bully," 
or  canned  beef,  is  styled  "singe**  (monkey),  while 
the  soup  (often  bad)  is  "lavasse**  (dishwater).  The 
bullets  he  fires  are  "marrons**  (chestnuts)  or  "pru- 
neaux**  (plums). 

And  so  on  —  to  the  endless  discomfort  of  the  lexi- 
cographers "apres  la  guerre.**  Surely  in  linguistic 
complications  the  "Tower  of  Babel"  episode  fades 
into  insignificance  beside  the  "confusion  of  tongues" 
in  the  trenches  of  France.  But  in  the  vernacular  of 
Tommy  "C'est  la  guerrel** 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS 

Shortly  after  our  entrance  into  the  war  Lord  North- 
cliffe,  in  a  message  to  Americans,  had  some  helpful 
things  to  say  as  to  what  the  American  soldiers  would 
need  in  the  way  of  food  and  equipment  when  sent  to 
France  or  Belgium.  "But  your  boy  wants  more  than 
these  things,"  he  added.  "Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you 
that  he  must  be  amused?  He  must  have  moving 
pictures,  talking  machines,  books,  magazines,  home 
newspapers,  each  of  them  occupying  valuable  tonnage 
and  ships." 

"If  your  soldier  is  more  of  a  reader  than  a  card- 
player,"  wrote  Lord  Northcliffe  on  another  occasion, 
"send  him  books,  only  be  sure  they  are  small  books, 
*  infinite  riches  in  a  little  room.'  A  tiny  selection  of 
poems  by  a  favorite  poet,  or  a  miniature  edition  of 
some  story,  some  essays,  some  work  of  research  or 
imagination,  an  edition  that  will  go  into  the  pocket 
without  taking  up  too  much  space.  That  is  a  gift 
which  will  bring  to  many  a  soldier  the  finest  pleas- 
ure of  all  pleasures,  absorption  in  the  visions  or  the 
thoughts  of  one  of  the  world's  great  minds.  Remem- 
ber that  soldiers  at  the  front  have  a  great  deal  of 
time  on  their  hands.  They  need  occupation.  Their 
recreation  is  limited  to  smoking,  chatting,  and  read- 
ing. How  the  men  in  the  line  himger  for  'something 


62  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

to  read,'  how  they  go  through  the  magazmes,  daily 
and  weekly  papers,  even  through  scraps  of  old  paper, 
how  they  enjoy  anything  fresh  which  will  'take  them 
out  of  themselves'  for  a  little  while  —  I  could  de- 
scribe from  personal  experience  and  illustrate  by 
many  a  pathetic  anecdote." 

Clive  Holland  writes  that  British  soldiers  return- 
ing home  have  said  that  but  for  the  solace  of  reading 
they  would  indeed  have  been  badly  off  for  recrea- 
tion and  amusement  in  the  gloomy  dugouts,  in  the 
trenches,  and  in  the  huts  which  afforded  them  some 
sort  of  shelter.  There,  often  by  the  light  of  a  candle 
stuck  in  a  bottle  or  upon  a  nail  driven  through  a 
piece  of  wood,  the  war  was  happily  driven  from 
their  minds  by  the  "magic  carpet"  of  some  book  of 
travel  or  romance. 

The  men  of  the  American  Expeditionary  Force 
needed  and  appreciated  books  Just  as  much  as  the 
British  soldiers.  Alan  Seeger  wrote  on  the  flyleaves 
of  a  copy  of  Rousseau's  "Confessions":  "We  put  in 
a  very  pleasant  week  here  —  nine  hours  of  guard  at 
night  in  our  outposts  upon  the  hillside;  in  the  day- 
time sleep,  or  foraging  in  the  ruined  villages,  loafing 
in  the  pretty  garden  of  the  chateau  or  reading  in  the 
library.  We  have  cleaned  this  up  now,  and  it  is  an 
altogether  curious  sensation  to  recline  here  in  an 
easy  chair,  reading  some  fine  old  book,  and  just 
taking  the  precaution  not  to  stay  in  front  of  the 
glassless  windows  through  which  the  sharpshooters 
can  snipe  at  you  from  their  posts  in  the  thickets 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  63 

on  the  slopes  of  the  plateau,  not  six  hundred  meters 
away." 

From  the  time  when  he  first  read  "  Treasure  Island  " 
and  "Via  Crueis " Dinsmore Ely, of  Winnetka,  Illinois, 
envied  those  who  lived  in  the  times  of  pirates,  and 
crusaders,  and  Indians.  He  felt  that  these  men  faced 
real  hardships  and  fought  real  foes  —  in  short,  lived 
life  to  its  fullest  —  while  we  of  to-day,  raised  on  milk 
and  honey,  were  deprived  of  the  right  to  face  our 
dragon  and  bear  our  metal.  So  when  his  chance  came 
he  went  into  the  aviation  service  and  paid  the  price 
for  freedom  in  April,  1918.  His  letters  to  his  family 
have  just  been  published  and  bear  witness  to  the 
general  desire  for  reading  matter. 

On  a  rainy  day  in  July,  1917,  he  read  Galsworthy's 
"Dark  Flower"  and  thought  the  style  clean-cut  and 
masterful.  "The  story  weighed  on  me.  I  walked  ten 
miles  and  could  not  sleep.  What  this  war  does  to 
people's  lives!"  "What  we  crave  most  in  reading  is 
romance,"  said  he  in  another  letter  home.  "  The  Sat- 
urday Evening  Post  fills  the  bill  more  than  anything 
else.  If  you  could  send  me  a  subscription  to  that  for 
six  months,  it  would  be  greatly  appreciated.  ...  It 
is  read  from  cover  to  cover  and  passed  about  till  the 
pages  are  thin;  so  it  would  fill  a  big  demand.  Another 
book  on  aviation  came.  I  have  not  yet  had  time  to 
finish  the  first  one.  As  they  go  into  the  technical  end 
of  things  rather  deeply,  I  can  only  study  a  small 
amount  at  a  time.  Most  of  my  reading  lately  has 
been  history."  On  behalf  of  the  daughter  of  his  host 


64  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

at  Cazaux,  who  read  many  English  books  and  was 
anxious  to  read  some  American  novels,  he  asked  his 
father  to  send  Owen  Wister's  "The  Virginian," 
Gene  Stratton  Porter's  "Laddie,"  and  Booth  Tark- 
ington's  "The  Turmoil."  "These  depict  American 
life  as  she  would  enjoy  knowing  it,"  said  he.  "She  is 
giving  me  French  books  to  read." 

A  Massachusetts  boy  who  had  been  gassed  wrote 
from  an  overseas  hospital  to  a  friend  engaged  in  Li- 
brary War  Service :  "Really  it 's  a  great  work.  The  men 
in  the  trenches,  in  the  rest  billets,  in  the  field  hospitals, 
in  the  evacuation  hospitals,  in  the  base  hospitals  even, 
depend  on  smokes  and  reading  to  help  kill  time.  It  is 
essential  that  men  have  something  good  to  keep  their 
minds  on  after  the  trench  routine  and  in  the  hospitals. 
I  know,  because  I  've  spent  three  weeks  in  a  field  hos- 
pital and  three  weeks  in  a  French  hospital.  I've  read 
from  cover  to  cover  papers  four  to  five  months  old, 
from  Waco  and  San  Antonio;  spent  hours  on  the 
Methodist  Monthly,  and  enthused  over  an  Outlook  of 
last  October.  It  is  a  good  work  —  keep  it  up." 

NEWS  FROM  HOME  WANTED 

"I'm  out  here  in  the  R.F.A.  with  krumps  bursting 
on  my  cocoanut  and  am  going  to  see  it  through," 
wrote  an  American  soldier  to  Frederick  Palmer.  "If 
you've  got  any  American  newspapers  or  magazines 
lying  around  loose  please  send  them  to  me,  as  I  am 
far  from  California." 

The  craving  for  news  from  home  was  general,  and 


fi    ~a 
-«     o 


r:  -3 


H      2 


M       o 

> 

<    2 


H 

•kJ 

^ 

*o 

a 

X) 

^ 

c 
4> 

!Z5 

■*■> 

a 

03 

"S 

02 

X 

« 

a 

> 

■3 

60 

o 

S3 

-0 

K 

C 

O 

e8 

P^ 

■S 

>^ 

0 

Q 

M 

<; 

c 

133 

H 

tf 

V 

E« 

.a 
■t-> 

ui 

a 

o 

0 

o 

y. 

« 

B 

_eS 

k^ 

3 

o 

.g 

tc 

"o 

U 

« 

CC 

v 

««1 

n 

o 

n 

^ 

Q 

^ 

(V 

M 

H 

THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  65 

it  was  necessary  to  send  many  magazines  and  news- 
papers from  the  United  States.  Naturally,  the  for- 
eign publications  could  not  take  the  place  of  those 
the  men  had  been  accustomed  to  read.  American 
periodicals  were  received  as  gifts  from  individuals 
and  institutions  in  the  States,  or  were  purchased 
in  London  through  the  Dorland  News  Agency,  which, 
through  the  efforts  of  Governor  Edge  of  New  Jersey, 
obtained  special  discoimts  for  the  American  Red 
Cross  and  the  Y.M.C.A. 

As  the  result  of  a  letter  which  he  had  received  from 
an  American  woman  in  France,  Colonel  Theodore 
Roosevelt  urged  the  American  public  to  send  news- 
papers to  our  soldiers.  The  letter  described  the  Red 
Cross  hospital  at  Neuilly.  "The  wards  are  already 
full,"  said  the  writer,  "and  the  halls  are  lined  with 
men  on  stretchers  waiting  to  have  their  wounds 
dressed.  The  men  are  splendid  and  not  complaining. 
They  are  pathetically  eager  for  home  news,  and 
there  is  nothing  they  wish  for  more  than  home 
papers.  I  wish  that  you  would  suggest  that  more 
home  papers  be  sent  them.  They  do  not  want  old 
papers  that  have  been  read  and  thrown  away,  but 
daily  papers  mailed  regularly  to  them."  "I  very 
earnestly  make  an  appeal  not  only  for  New  York  and 
Boston  papers,  but  that  all  American  papers  be  sent 
to  the  boys,"  said  Colonel  Roosevelt  in  giving  out 
the  letter.  "Funds  should  be  provided  to  send  papers 
regularly  to  the  hospitals  where  the  boys  from  their 
district  are  likely  to  go." 


66  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  Councils  of  Defense  of  the  various  States  were 
asked  to  supply  their  local  newspapers,  and  in  re- 
sponse to  this  request  city  and  town  papers  were 
received  from  every  State. 

At  the  bathing-cure  resorts  to  which  convalescent 
soldiers  were  sent,  and  in  all  the  hospitals  which  it 
was  possible  to  reach,  the  Red  Cross  distributed  daily 
papers  —  many  of  them  European  papers  printed  in 
English  —  every  morning,  and  both  American  and 
European  magazines  every  week.  At  the  front,  the 
English  European  papers  were  distributed  from  the 
Red  Cross  warehouses  and  stations  on  their  arrival 
from  Paris  by  rail.  A  newspaper  was  never  destroyed 
imtil  every  soldier  in  the  sector  had  read  it. 

A  few  brief  extracts  from  letters  received  by  the 
Care  Committee  of  the  London  Chapter  of  the  Amer- 
ican Red  Cross  will  show  how  much  the  men  in  the 
service  appreciated  the  papers  and  magazines  that 
were  sent  them.  One  American  who  had  gone  to 
Canada  to  enlist  and  had  been  in  France  for  a  year 
wrote  that  the  opportunity  to  read  made  the  long 
hours  seem  shorter. 

Another,  writing  from  a  Canadian  Military  Hos- 
pital in  Kent,  sent  a  contribution  of  a  dollar  to  the 
Red  Cross  and  asked  to  be  remembered  when  possible 
with  a  "Buckeye'*  newspaper  or  a  personal  letter. 
*'It  was  surely  fine  to  get  those  New  York  papers," 
wrote  a  member  of  an  aero  squadron,  recuperating 
in  a  military  hospital  in  Wiltshire.  "The  Popular 
Mechanics  was  a  godsend.  The  Saturday  Evening 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  67 

Post  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold  to  me.  When  at  Yale, 
I  can  remember  how  books  and  studies  lost  their  values 
every  Thursday  when  the  mail  brought  the  Post.**  A 
fourth  man  said  that  the  letter  received  from  the  Care 
Conmiittee  found  him  in  bed,  thinking  that  he  was  one 
of  the  forgotten  ones.  "You  have  no  idea  what  comfort 
I  derive  from  those  home  papers! "  he  added.  "  I  even 
read  the  department  store  advertisements." 

THE  AMERICAN  RED  CROSS 

Li  the  spring  of  1918  the  Red  Cross  library  serv- 
ice in  France  was  reaching  eighteen  base  hospitals, 
twenty  camp  hospitals,  and  nine  other  stations  of 
one  sort  or  another.  The  Paris  representative  of  the 
Red  Cross  was  receiving  from  London  about  two 
thousand  volumes  a  month  and  was  spending  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  hundred  francs  a  month  on  sub- 
scriptions to  periodicals;  in  addition  he  had  received 
about  two  thousand  volumes  from  one  chapter  in 
New  England  and  similar  gifts  from  other  donors. 
Recreation  huts,  under  the  control  and  direction  of 
the  Y.M.C.A.,  had  also  been  established  at  numer- 
ous base  hospitals  for  the  benefit  of  the  personnel. 

Special  American  Red  Cross  representatives  acted 
as  receiving  agents  at  the  distributing  centers.  With 
camp  hospitals  increasing  at  the  rate  of  six  a  month 
it  was  necessary  that  a  large  stock  of  books  should 
be  quickly  shipped  and  distributed. 

The  Library  Committee  of  the  London  Chapter 
of  the  American  Red  Cross  aimed  to  supply: 


68  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

(1)  The  American  Red  Cross  in  France  with  books 
needed  for  their  own  hospitals  and  for  those  of  the 
American  Expeditionary  Force. 

(2)  The  British  Base  hospitals  in  France,  where  the 
doctors,  nurses,  and  orderlies  were  American,  with 
books  and  American  magazines  and  newspapers. 

(3)  The  American  sick  and  wounded  in  England, 
either  in  American  or  English  hospitals,  with  books, 
magazines,  and  newspapers. 

(4)  Hospitals  at  certain  American  navaJ  bases  and 
some  out-of-the-way  naval  stations  with  all  forms  of 
literature. 

"The  choice  of  the  books  we  distribute,"  wrote  Mr. 
Lawrence  L.  Tweedy,  Chairman  of  the  Library  Com- 
mittee, "depends  on  the  use  to  which  they  are  to  be 
put.  K  they  are  meant  for  immediate  distribution  in 
the  wards,  where  many  must  be  destroyed  almost 
immediately  because  of  infection,  and  where  the  men 
want  only  to  be  amused,  we  restrict  ourselves  almost 
entirely  to  fiction,  and  light  fiction  at  that.  Where  we 
are  supplying  more  or  less  permanent  libraries  for 
hospital  staffs  or  for  some  of  the  naval  stations,  we 
try  to  give  them  a  little  of  all  kinds  of  books,  such  as 
the  classics,  essays,  poetry,  and  biography,  but  still 
for  the  greater  part,  fiction." 

The  books  used  were  either  gifts  —  the  number  of 
which  was  very  small  —  or  they  were  purchased  in 
the  London  market.  They  were  restricted  almost 
entirely  to  popular  editions,  either  in  paper  or  cloth 
bindings,  costing  from  sixpence  to  a  shilling.  As  the 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  69 

life  of  these  books  was  exceedingly  short  they  soon 
had  to  be  replaced.  No  attempt  was  made  to  import 
books  from  America;  tonnage  was  needed  for  more 
essential  things  and  it  was  anticipated  that  sooner 
or  later  the  American  Library  Association  would  be 
able  to  make  shipments  on  a  large  scale.  Such  an 
arrangement  was  greatly  desired  by  the  Library 
Committee,  as  the  demand  for  books  "over  there** 
far  exceeded  the  supply,  and  the  purchases  for  the 
American  forces  were  an  additional  drain  which 
tended  to  increase  prices  in  the  book  market. 

EARLY  ARRIVALS  "OVER  THERE*' 

An  American  soldier  who  reached  France  in  July, 
1915,  sent  to  the  Nation  a  letter  dated  November  25, 
1917,  in  which  he  gave  a  list  of  the  thirty-two  books 
that  he  had  been  able  to  read  since  his  arrival.  "What 
I  read,  wherewithal  I  while  my  hours  of  leisure,  that 
is  one  of  my  largest  little  problems,"  he  wrote.  "I  set 
myself  a  certain  vague  standard,  and  only  very  sel- 
dom, when  none  of  my  genuine  'eligibles*  are  ob- 
tainable, am  I  compelled  to  resort  to  books  of  no 
particular  reputation.**  His  reading  included  Scott's 
"Woodstock";  Dickens's  "Tale  of  Two  Cities," 
"Hard  Times,"  and  "Pictures  from  Italy";  Reade's 
"The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth";  George  Eliot's 
"Adam  Bede";  Jane  Austen*s  "Sense  and  Sensibil- 
ity"; Jane  Porter's  "Thaddeus  of  Warsaw**;  Olli- 
vant's  "Bob,  Son  of  Battle";  Bulwer-Lytton's 
"Last  Days  of  Pompeii'*;  Charles  Kingsley*s  "  West- 


70  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ward  Ho!";  Henry  Kingsley's  "Ravenshoe";  Black- 
more's  "Loma  Doone";  Hugo's  "Toilers of  the  Sea"; 
Borrow's  "Bible  in  Spain";  Irving's  "Sketch  Book"; 
Stevenson's  " Vailima  Letters ";  Henry  James's  "  The 
American";  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  "The  Marriage 
of  William  Ashe";  Anthony  Hope's  "The  King's 
Mirror";  Gilbert  Parker's  "The  Right  of  Way," 
"Seats  of  the  Mighty,"  "When  Valmond  Came  to 
Pontiac,"  and  "Donovan  Pasha."  In  lighter  vein 
were  Lucas  Malet's  "Adrian  Savage";  Agnes  and 
Egerton  Castle's  "Incomparable  Bellairs"  and  "If 
Youth  but  Knew";  Hall  Caine's  "Son  of  Hagar"; 
and  Denby's  "Let  the  Roof  Fall  In."  In  French  he 
read  twelve  of  Comeille's  plays,  George  Sand's 
"Jeanne"  and  Tolstoy's  "Le  Pere  Serge." 

"And  of  more  or  better,  what  need  has  any  man? 
Some  of  these  books  I  found  in  hospitals;  some  I 
bought  almost  in  the  trenches  where  civilians  still 
clung  to  the  wreckage;  some  I  borrowed  from 
Y.M.C.A.  libraries;  some  I  raked  out  of  the  jaws  of 
*  death  by  incinerator';  some  I  swapped  with  com- 
rades; and  others  I  simply  *  acquired'  (whereof  the 
less  said  the  better).  The  best  and  largest  Y.M.C.A. 
library  I  have  ever  seen  in  France  is  at  31,  Avenue 
Montaigne,  in  Paris,  and  American  soldiers  of  literary 
bent  should  consider  themselves  fortunate  in  the  way 
their  needs  have  there  been  met.  During  my  ten 
days'  leave  to  Paris,  the  American  Y.M.C.A.  was 
the  chief  center  of  interest." 

Miss  Eveline  W.  Brainerd  published  in  the  Inde- 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  71 

pendent  of  January  19,  1918,  an  account  of  the  work 
in  the  book  department  at  the  Paris  headquarters 
of  the  Y.M.C.A.  On  the  boat  going  over  one  man 
had  assured  her  that  "soldiers  don't  want  books;  they 
won't  read."  A  Major  qualified  this  by  a  positive 
statement  that  what  the  men  wanted  was  "light 
stuff,"  —  "something  exciting;  they  won't  read  any- 
thing else."  While  "light  stuff"  and  "something  ex- 
citing" led  in  popularity  at  first,  later  there  came 
requests  for  such  things  as  a  Life  of  Gordon,  Tenny- 
son's Poems,  a  work  on  elementary  law,  and  one 
on  electrical  engineering.  A  secretary  asked  for  "at 
least  twenty  histories  of  France,"  and  wanted  to 
know  how  many  more  could  be  supplied  later.  The 
book-shops  of  Paris  were  scoured  for  dictionaries, 
atlases,  travel  books,  Kipling,  Seeger,  Service,  and 
Wells,  for  everything  on  the  battle  of  the  Mame 
and  on  international  relations. 

Maps  were  the  most  popular  wall  decorations  in 
the  American  huts  in  France.  Groups  were  seen 
gathered  around  them  as  long  as  there  was  light 
enough  to  make  out  the  lines;  the  region  in  which 
the  camp  was  located  was  rubbed  white  by  constant 
tracing,  and  the  spot  that  represented  Paris  was 
worn  through  the  paper.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
French  readers  were  eager  to  see  pictures  of  the 
United  States. 

An  unavoidable  ignorance  of  what  books  would  be 
most  wanted,  how  quickly  and  in  what  quantity, 
and  difficulties  of  transportation  from  England  and 


72  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

America  were  responsible  for  the  extreme  shortage 
of  books  at  the  begimiing.  Frequently  there  were  not 
enough  to  go  round.  A  man  from  one  camp  popped 
his  head  in  at  the  book  department  and  said  with  a 
smile;  "Just  wanted  to  remind  you,  —  twenty-four 
books,  twenty  thousand  men!"  Another  man  with  a 
sense  of  humor  reported  that  he  was  in  charge  of  two 
huts  with  "very  few  books  and  those  about  to  perish 
of  old  age."  A  visitor  went  back  to  his  fifteen  hundred 
soldiers  with  a  single  armful  of  volumes  —  all  that 
headquarters  could  spare  him. 

"Scant  as  the  libraries  at  the  front  have  been  and 
still  are,"  said  Miss  Brainerd  in  conclusion,  "little  as 
they  hold  of  recent  publications,  they  are  yet  circu- 
lating thousands  of  books  and  do  fine  service  all  of 
the  daytime.  But  the  night  falls  early  and  lights  are 
not  plenty,  and  then  comes  the  need  for  something 
lively,  and  new  to  all.  It  is  half-past  five  of  a  cloudy 
afternoon  such  as  come  often  in  this  damp  land.  Some 
four  hundred  men  are  packed  close  as  they  can  crowd 
within  a  hut.  Here  and  there  a  candle  held  by  some 
willing  hand  picks  out  the  darkness  and  before  this 
eager  audience  stands  the  secretary,  reading  Empey's 
'Over  the  Top.*  Two  soldiers  hold  pocket  electric 
lamps  to  light  the  page,  and  comrades  relieve  each 
other  now  and  then.  The  book  is  borrowed,  the  only 
copy  probably  in  all  the  line  of  huts  that,  scattered 
miles  apart,  serve  thousands  of  men.  It  must  be  sent 
on  as  soon  as  may  be  to  the  next  secretary,  and  so 
along  the  line,  until  in  every  hut  has  been  repeated 


LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE  IN  FRANCE 

Upper:  Circulating  A.L.A.  books  in  a  Y.M.C.A.  hut 
Lovxt:  Stockroom,  A.L.A.  headquarters,  Paris 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  73 

this  scene  of  the  intent  men  sitting  and  standing  in 
the  shadows,  the  only  brightness  in  the  room  being 
that  falling  on  the  reader's  hands." 

THE  A.L.A.  IN  SIBERIA 

When  the  first  detachment  of  troops  for  Siberian 
service  sailed  from  San  Francisco  in  the  summer  of 
1918,  a  collection  of  three  thousand  A.L.A.  volumes 
went  with  them.  Transports  sailing  from  the  Philip- 
pines were  supplied  with  reading  matter  by  the  A.L.A. 
representative  in  Manila. 

In  early  December,  Professor  Harry  Clemons, 
formerly  connected  with  the  libraries  of  Wesleyan 
and  Princeton  universities,  went  to  Vladivostock, 
from  the  University  of  Nanking,  China,  where  he 
holds  the  position  of  librarian  and  professor  of  Eng- 
lish, to  take  charge  of  the  A.L.A.  work  with  the  Ex- 
peditionary Forces.  His  letters  to  the  Washington 
headquarters  contain  interesting  descriptions  of  his 
experiences  as  librarian  with  this  most  distant  di- 
vision of  the  American  army. 

Upon  his  arrival  at  Vladivostock  he  found  that 
most  of  the  books  which  had  already  reached  Siberia 
had  been  distributed,  largely  through  the  interest 
and  initiative  of  the  Morale  Officer  of  the  Expedition, 
among  the  various  military  units  in  and  around  the 
base  and  scattered  along  the  line  of  the  Siberian 
railway.  His  first  work,  therefore,  was  to  locate  these 
books,  find  out  how  they  were  being  used,  arrange 
exchanges,  and  determine  the  possibilities  of  the  sit- 


74  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

uation.  He  soon  came  to  the  conclusion  that  as  the 
troops  were  in  small  detachments,  scattered  over 
a  wide  extent  of  territory,  any  elaborate  central 
library  would  be  a  useless  expense;  the  problem  was 
rather  one  of  traveling  libraries  with  local  admin- 
istration. 

That  there  were  unusual  opportunities  for  library 
service  was  apparent.  The  troops  were  comfortably 
housed  in  winter  quarters;  the  thrill  of  the  war  was 
over  and  the  men  wanted  to  get  home.  Visits  to  the 
collections  in  and  about  Vladivostock  proved  con- 
clusively that  books  and  periodicals  were  eagerly 
welcomed.  In  a  Y.M.C.A.  hut  only  sixteen  volumes 
were  foimd  on  the  shelves,  out  of  a  collection  of  three 
hundred;  the  cards  recorded  an  average  of  fully  ten 
loans  per  volume.  From  eighty  books  in  the  barracks 
of  a  squad  of  American  engineers  three  hundred  and 
thirty  loans  had  been  made  in  two  weeks.  "At  one  or 
two  places,"  says  Professor  Clemons,  "I  was  assured 
that  *the  men  have  read  them  all."*  The  chaplain  of 
a  regiment  along  the  line  reported  that  every  book, 
except  atlases  and  encyclopedias,  which  were  not 
allowed  to  circulate,  was  gone  in  twenty-four  hours 
after  the  library  opened,  and  the  men  were  calling 
for  more.  The  influence  on  the  morale  could  almost 
be  demonstrated  mathematically.  "I  have  heard  of 
a  whole  barracks  full  of  men  stretched  out  quietly 
and  contentedly  reading  in  the  evening  after  a  case 
of  books  had  been  opened,"  writes  the  librarian.  The 
establishing  of  the  camp  library  immediately  cut 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  75 

down  by  more  than  half  the  requests  for  evening 
leave  in  one  company. 

One  regiment  had  made  the  A.L.A.  books  a  part 
of  the  regimental  library,  and  the  Colonel  had  him- 
self worked  out  an  excellent  plan  for  exchange  among 
his  various  detachments,  which  were  scattered  over 
the  adjoining  coimtry  **as  thickly  as  golf  links  in 
Scotland." 

A  room  in  one  of  the  base  warehouses,  just  across 
the  hall  from  the  Base  Post-OflBce,  was  assigned  to 
Professor  Clemons  for  his  headquarters.  "Out  of 
another  warehouse,"  he  wrote,  "I  dug  twenty-four 
boxes  and  three  parcels,  containing  a  few  books  and 
a  welter  of  periodicals.  These  were  moved  to  my 
store-room  and  opened.  The  result  is  the  first  stage 
of  a  mobilization  of  most  of  the  periodicals  in  the 
East.  It  is  chaos.  I  have  considered  topping  it  with 
a  banner,  *A11  is  not  literature  that  litters.'  For  the 
moving  I  had  a  squad  of  Austrian  prisoners,  and  a 
colonel  who  got  interested  yesterday  loaned  me  a 
soldier  to  open  boxes." 

A  full  distribution  and  strength  chart  of  the  Ex- 
pedition, together  with  an  excellent  blueprint  map, 
obtained  from  Army  Headquarters,  supplied  infor- 
mation as  to  the  location  of  all  the  scattered  detach- 
ments, and  the  proximity  to  the  post-office  made  it 
easy  to  send  packages  by  the  mail  orderlies  going 
out  on  their  regular  rounds.  Letters  to  the  command- 
ing officers  of  all  the  larger  detachments  of  the  Ex- 
pedition located  some  distance  from  Vladivostock, 


76  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

inquiring  about  the  desire  for  books  and  the  advisa- 
bility of  a  visit  from  the  librarian,  brought  uniformly 
affirmative  answers.  These  proposed  trips  Professor 
demons  thought  it  best  to  postpone  until  the  arrival 
of  the  expected  cases  of  books  should  enable  him  to 
take  with  him  something  more  tangible  than  prom- 
ises,—  although  he  was  somewhat  concerned  lest 
his  apparent  inaction  should  lead  the  Washington 
headquarters  to  "the  Chestertonian  conclusion  ex- 
pressed by  one  of  the  oflBcers  of  this  Expedition  that 
*  warfare  unfits  one  for  the  sterner  pursuits  of  life.*" 

While  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  these  cases  from 
the  A.L.A.  Professor  demons  sorted  the  books  and 
periodicals  he  had  unearthed  and  prepared  them  for 
distribution.  Eventually  they  were  sent  to  forty 
different  detachments  in  forty-one  mail  sacks  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  parcels.  "I  hope  to  be 
able  to  send  sets  to  all  the  detachments,  large  and 
small,  of  the  Expedition  during  Christmas  week,"  he 
wrote  to  headquarters  on  December  22.  "Thus  do 
we  introduce  the  short  story  into  the  long  Siberian 
night. 

"In  my  position  of  'middleman*  I  am  sure  I  can 
send  to  you  and  to  the  others  who  are  making  the 
war  work  possible  the  grateful  Christmas  greetings 
of  the  Expeditionary  Force  in  Siberia.** 

A  week  later  he  wrote:  "During  the  past  week  I 
have  put  the  finishing  touches  to  the  arrangement 
of  my  prize  collection  of  periodicals,  and  have  sent 
out  twenty  mail-sacks  and  fifty  other  parcels  of  this 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  77 

machine-gun  literature.  It  has  been  a  very  grimy 
job,  and  I  have  looked  upon  so  many  magazine- 
cover  ladies  that  completely  clothed  women  of  in- 
telligent mien  are  at  a  premium  with  me." 

The  "Clearing  House  Library,"  as  Professor 
demons  christened  the  room  which  was  to  serve  as 
reference  library  and  reading-room  for  the  troops 
stationed  at  the  Base,  as  well  as  for  traveling  library 
headquarters,  soon  became  known  and  requests  for 
special  books,  and  also  for  periodicals,  began  to 
come  in.  Mathematics,  English  grammar,  Spanish, 
economics,  commerce,  Russian  history,  and  the 
Eastern  question  were  among  the  subjects  on 
which  literature  was  wanted.  A  hurry  call  was  sent 
to  Shanghai  for  about  fifty  books.  Li  the  meantime, 
volume  for  volume  exchanges  of  A.L.A.  books  in  the 
possession  of  different  troops  were  effected. 

In  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  the  A.L.A.  cases 
which  were  known  to  be  on  the  way,  shelves  were 
put  into  the  distribution  room.  An  hour  after  they 
were  finished  the  first  of  the  "real"  A.L.A.  books 
arrived.  From  these  the  librarian  chose  a  good  stock 
for  the  central  library;  the  rest  were  repacked  for 
distribution  to  the  detachments.  In  making  up  the 
collection  to  be  kept  at  the  Base,  emphasis  was 
placed  upon  reference  books,  as  on  account  of  the 
location  of  the  place  the  proportion  of  officers  among 
the  borrowers  was  likely  to  be  large.  Perhaps  the 
best  proof  of  the  quality  of  the  users  is  a  list  of  the 
first  twenty  books  taken  out: 


78  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Adkins,  Historical  Backgrounds  (Captain) 

Austin,  Unchained  Russia  (Captain) 

Baimsfather,  Fragments  from  France  (Lieutenant) 

Boyer  and  Speranskii,  Russian  Reader  (Sergeant) 

Breasted,  Ancient  Times  (Lieutenant) 

Churchill,  Traveller  in  War  Time  (Lieutenant) 

Doyle,  Study  in  Scarlet  (Lieutenant) 

Duruy,  General  History  of  the  World,  vol.  1  (Sergeant) 

Fairbanks,  Laugh  and  Live  (Private) 

Fish,  Development  of  American  Nationality  (Lieutenant) 

Futrelle,  My  Lady's  Garter  (Captain) 
Graham,  The  Way  of  Martha  and  the  Way 

of  Mary  (Lieutenant) 
Hazen,  Alsace-Lorraine  (Lieutenant) 
Hazen,  Europe  since  1815  (Lieutenant) 
Milyoukov,  Russian  Realities  and  Problems  (Captain) 
Page,  How  to  Run  an  Automobile  (Private) 
Poole,  The  Dark  People  (Lieutenant) 
Robinson,  Medieval  and  Modern  Times  (Lieutenant) 
Wells,  Tono-Bungay  (Captain) 
Wiener,  Interpretation  of  the  Russian  Peo- 
ple (Captain) 

"I  had  an  illustration  of  the  change  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  that  'clearing  house  and  reference  library ' 
recently,"  wrote  the  librarian.  "The  enlisted  man 
who  was  loaned  to  me  several  weeks  ago  to  help  open 
and  unpack  the  twenty-four  boxes  of  old  periodicals 
and  books  nearly  broke  his  back  and  did  break  his 
hatchet  over  the  job.  When  I  dismissed  him  the  mess 
was  beyond  my  powers  of  description.  I  judge  that 
the  soldier  thought  the  situation  was  hopeless.  For 
he  did  n't  come  back  until  one  afternoon  this  past 
week.  Meantime  the  periodicals  had  been  distributed. 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  79 

the  boxes  and  the  room  cleaned  out,  shelves  put  in 
and  books  arranged  on  them.  As  I  glanced  up  from 
my  work  I  saw  him  standing  in  the  door,  with  mouth 
wide  open.  At  my  nod  he  fairly  exploded:  *My  God, 
you've  got  it  cleaned  up!' 

"On  that  previous  day  he  had,  while  rubbing 
his  back,  confided  to  me  that  he  wanted  to  read 
a  book  by  Marie  Corelli.  This  time  it  was  waiting 
for  him." 

"A  little  incident  of  last  week,"  wrote  Professor 
demons  at  another  time,  "is  unique  in  my  library 
Experiences,  and  I  cannot  resist  trying  to  write  it  out. 
A  door-filling  specimen  of  an  enlisted  man,  who  had 
borrowed  Douglas  Fairbanks's  'Laugh  and  Live,' 
brought  it  back,  mildly  disgusted. 

"'This  ain't  what  I  want.  I  thought  it  was  a 
funny  book.' 

"'And  you  did  n't  find  it  funny?'  I  inquired. 

"'Naw.  Say,  have  you  got  anything  like  Elinor 
Glyn's  "Three  Weeks?"  Elinor  Glyn's  so  — so  — 
well,  scientific,  you  know.' 

"The  adjective  gave  me  a  sudden  coughing  fit. 
But  it  also  gave  me  an  answer: 

"'Perhaps  you  are  interested  in  eugenics?' 

** However  this  wasn't  any  more  helpful  than  I 
had  expected  it  to  be.  So  the  man  started  out  to 
help  himself.  He  made  a  laborious  tour  of  the  shelves. 
Finally,  with  a  grunt  that  seemed  to  mingle  satis- 
faction with  doubt,  he  pulled  out  a  volume  and 
handed  it  to  me  for  record. 


80  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"*I  guess  that  will  do.  I'll  try  it,  anyway.' 
"It  was  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  'Marriage  k  la 
Mode'!" 

The  use  of  the  library  increased  steadily,  and 
when  classes  were  started  among  the  soldiers  it 
became  necessary  to  send  again  to  Shanghai  for 
additional  reference  books.  Thousands  of  volumes, 
including  many  cases  of  technical  books,  have 
been  shipped  to  Vladivostock  from  San  Francisco, 
and  shipments  will  continue  as  long  as  the  need 
exists. 

BOOKS  AND  MORALS 

One  day  in  London  a  man  originally  from  New 
York  State  came  up  and  spoke  to  me  as  a  fellow 
American.  He  wore  the  garb  of  a  Canadian  officer. 
After  I  had  answered  his  query  as  to  what  I  was 
doing  in  England,  he  said:  "My  work  is  rather  dif- 
ferent. I  am  looking  after  the  social  evil  and  venereal 
diseases  in  the  Canadian  Army." 

"Then  you  are  a  medical  man?" 

"No,"  said  he,  "I  tried  to  get  my  English  medical 
friends  to  take  hold  of  the  work,  but  they  said  that 
they  had  their  reputations  to  look  after.  I  have  no 
reputation  to  lose.  I  am  simply  a  Unitarian  clergy- 
man." 

In  the  course  of  the  conversation  that  followed  he 
said  that  he  was  constantly  surprised  at  the  high 
class  of  books  which  the  boys  bought  when  they 
came  up  to  London. 


Ipper  :  ©  (hmmittee  on  Public  Informatto»  Lower  :  (g)  International  Film  Service 

Upper:  From  cotton  fields  to  khaki.     Colored  stevedores,  for  whom 

their  chaplain  solicited  A.L.A.  books 

Lower:  American  sailors  in  the  reading  room  of  one  of  their  clubs  in 

England 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  81 

On  another  occasion,  I  was  discussing  with  the  wife 
of  an  American  physician  long  resident  in  London 
the  remarkable  vogue  enjoyed  by  Brieux's  plays,  — 
"The  Three  Daughters  of  M.  Dupont"  and  "Dam- 
aged Goods"  had  been  running  for  months.  "Yes,** 
she  said,  "they  kept  out  his  'Damaged  Goods'  as 
long  as  they  could,  but  now  both  that  and  Ibsen's 
'Ghosts'  are  being  given  to  crowded  houses.  The 
censor  used  to  be  'nasty  nice  and  dirty  particular' 
about  certain  things,  as  my  maid  once  said  of  her 
former  employer." 

That  phrase  describes  fitly  though  inelegantly  the 
attitude  of  only  too  many  people  towards  a  sub- 
ject which  refuses  to  be  kept  in  the  background  — 
especially  in  war  time.  The  camp  libraries  have 
done  their  part  in  educating  the  men  in  morals 
and  sex  hygiene  by  providing  carefully  selected 
books  on  these  subjects.  Lectures  by  men  attached 
to  various  organizations  have  also  touched  on  these 
topics. 

An  eighteen-year-old  Michigan  boy  who  was  read- 
ing Dr.  Exner's  little  pamphlet,  "Friend  or  Enemy," 
of  which  a  million  and  a  half  copies  have  been  cir- 
culated, was  jeered  at  by  his  corporal,  who  said  with 
a  sneer,  "Oh,  you'll  be  going  along  with  the  bunch 
before  long."  Quietly  the  lad  replied,  "That's  all 
right,  corporal,  but  I've  a  mother,  four  sisters,  and  a 
sweetheart  back  home,  and  I'm  proud  of  it.  Believe 
me,  I'm  going  back  to  them  just  as  clean  as  I  came 
out." 


82  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

In  the  letters  of  "Dinsmore  Ely :  One  Who  Served," 
is  found  the  following,  written  to  his  father  from 
France: 

**In  reading  'The  Gallery  of  Antiquities*  by  Balzac, 
I  came  across  this  passage,  which  made  me  think  of 
your  parting  admonition:  'Remember,  my  son,  that 
your  blood  is  pure  from  contaminating  alliances.  We 
owe  to  the  honor  of  our  ancestors  sacredly  preserved 
the  right  to  look  all  women  in  the  face  and  bow  the 
knee  to  none  but  a  woman,  the  king,  and  God.  Yours 
is  the  right  to  hold  your  head  on  high  and  to  aspire 
to  queens.'  I  can  say  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  with 
assurance  that  I  know  the  honor  of  the  family  is  safe 
in  my  sword.  So  much  for  my  experiences  —  and  I 
aspire  to  a  queen." 

A  librarian  invited  some  sailors  to  her  home  for 
Sunday  dinner.  One  took  the  liberty  of  bringing  with 
him  a  hardened  old  salt,  who  was  much  moved  by 
the  unusual  hospitality  and  refinement  of  the  cul- 
tured home.  A  few  days  later  he  sent  the  mother 
of  the  librarian  a  postcard,  addressing  her  as  "  Dear 
Mam"  and  thanking  her  for  her  great  kindness  in 
opening  her  heart  and  home  to  the  men  of  the  navy, 
and  adding:  "If  there  were  more  women  like  you 
there  would  be  fewer  men  like  me." 

An  officer  wrote  to  the  American  Library  Associa- 
tion Headquarters  on  behalf  of  a  stevedore  regiment 
of  the  National  Army,  made  up  of  1359  negro  soldiers, 
stationed  at  an  overseas  port.  In  making  a  request 
for  from  750  to  1000  books,  he  said  that  he  was 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  83 

speaking  also  for  the  other  oflBcers  of  the  regiment, 
all  of  whom  were  white: 

"Astomiding  as  the  statement  may  sound  to  you, 
a  whole  lot  of  reading  matter  is  needed  in  this  outfit 
to  cut  down  venereal  diseases.  I  do  not  refer  to 
treatises  on  these  diseases,  because  we  do  not  want 
books  of  this  sort.  We  want  books  that  will  keep 
the  minds  of  men  employed  in  other  ways.  Two 
months  of  very  careful  study  along  this  line  has  con- 
vinced me  that  this  matter  of  books  is  one  of  the  best 
ways  to  combat  a  very  distressing  social  condition 
that  exists  all  over  France. 

"A  word  of  explanation.  We  have  at  this  base  — 
and  they  are  here  for  the  duration  of  the  War  — 
nearly  three  thousand  colored  men,  about  one  third 
of  whom  cannot  read  or  write.  We  want  the  books, 
first  of  all,  for  these  men  who  can  read  them.  These 
men  are  only  a  few  months,  at  most,  from  cotton 
fields  to  khaki.  They  are  among  a  strange  people, 
who  speak  a  language  unintelligible  to  them  and  the 
only  reading  matter  they  can  find  in  large  amounts 
is  that  found  in  publications  typical  of  the  life  of  the 
half-world.  .  .  . 

"As  regimental  censor,  reading  their  letters  home, 
and  thrown  into  close  contact  with  them,  I  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  books  will  keep  them  in  camp. 
Not  at  any  time  in  my  life  have  I  been  so  made  to 
realize  the  meaning  of  the  expression  *  thirsting  for 
knowledge.'  These  colored  men  from  the  rural  South 
do.   By   begging,   borrowing   and  buying,   I  have 


84  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

corralled  all  the  English  books  in  this  vicinity  that 
are  worth  while  and  I  have  113  books  that  I  think 
should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  these  1900  men. 
These  books  are  all  in  use,  seven  days  in  the 
week.  But  we  need  hundreds  more. 

"Two  thirds  of  the  organization  are  literates.  But 
they,  too,  are  subject  to  the  seductions  of  wine, 
women,  and  certain  kinds  of  song,  all  of  which  are 
affording  them  new  and  very  injurious  experiences. 
But  when  they  get  hold  of  a  book  they  remain  in 
camp  at  night,  and  during  their  other  leisure  hours, 
of  which  they  have  many,  owing  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  military  service,  they  read  these  books,  and  what 
is  of  more  importance,  talk  about  them  and  discuss 
the  things  they  have  learned.  A  man  who  can  get  hold 
of  a  book  stays  at  home  and  reads  it,  soon  improves  in 
the  matters  of  dress  and  military  conduct  and  shows 
improvement  in  morals  and  self-respect.  These  are  ele- 
mental things,  almost  trite  expressions  with  us  at 
home,  but  they  are  very  real  to  us  at  this  permanent 
base  in  the  line  of  communications.  I  trust  you  see 
the  need  I  am  trying,  in  a  feeble  and  halting  way,  to 
make  plain. 

"Now  I  do  not  expect  that  your  institution  shall 
mulct  itself  of  the  number  of  volumes  I  ask  for.  But 
I  hope  that  you  can  furnish  some  volumes  and  gather 
others  from  other  libraries  and  from  individuals,  act- 
ing as  the  collecting  and  selecting  center  and  forward- 
ing them  to  us  when  the  collection  is  made.  We  want 
books  for  the  average  mind.  They  must  be  neither 


THE  CALL  FROM  OVERSEAS  85 

too  mature  nor  too  elementary;  stories  of  liaisons, 
blood  and  thunder  adventures,  and  theological  contro- 
versies should  be  avoided.  Attractively  written  his- 
tories and  patriotic  romances  are  needed;  stories 
showing  love  of  country,  God,  and  virtue  would  be 
most  welcome.'* 


I 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  AX.A.  IN  FRANCE 

The  systematic  work  of  the  A.L.A.  for  the  American 
Expeditionary  Forces  began  in  January,  1918,  when 
a  Dispatch  OflBce  was  established  at  Hoboken  for  the 
purpose  of  assembling  books  and  shipping  them  on 
transports.  The  books  sent  in  this  way  were  placed 
in  Y.M.C.A.  huts  or  distributed  directly  to  the  men 
themselves.  At  about  the  same  time  the  Association 
sent  a  representative.  Dr.  M.  Llewellyn  Raney,  to 
France  to  lay  the  foimdations  for  a  broader  service. 
Consulting  first  the  commander  of  the  United 
States  naval  forces  operating  in  European  waters 
and  securing  a  pass.  Dr.  Raney  visited  many  naval 
stations  and  everywhere  found  that  the  men  wanted 
books,  both  to  while  away  the  time  and  for  pur- 
poses of  study.  A  chance  to  go  to  sea  in  the  flag- 
ship of  a  convoying  fleet  in  its  work  down  the 
French  coast  afforded  a  first-hand  demonstration. 
For  two  days  he  mingled  with  the  men  and  studied 
their  tastes  and  inclinations.  During  an  evening 
spent  in  the  crowded  quarters  under  deck  he  saw  a 
dozen  of  them  lying  in  their  bunks,  reading.  Many 
had  fastened  soap  boxes  on  the  side  of  the  hull,  oj)- 
posite  their  narrow  beds,  to  serve  as  book  racks. 
"The  opportunity  was  there  and  the  desire  was  not 
lacking,"  he  says.  "The  body  was  constrained,  but 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  87 

the  mind  was  eager  to  wander."  They  knew  what 
they  wanted:  travel,  adventures  of  the  sea,  stirring 
Western  fiction,  and  good  war  stories.  They  called 
for  Empey,  Jack  London,  Zane  Grey,  Ralph  Con- 
nor, Stanley  Weyman,  Joseph  Conrad,  Kipling,  and 
Stevenson.  French  textbooks  were  also  asked  for. 

At  some  of  the  naval  aviation  stations  in  France 
were  men  who  were  to  take  AnnapoKs  examinations 
the  next  month;  they  did  not  have  the  necessary 
textbooks,  and  a  preliminary  test  showed  that  with- 
out them  they  were  sure  to  fail.  Could  the  A.L.A. 
help.'*  So  service  began  on  the  spot.  The  desired  books 
were  promptly  secured  from  London  and  distributed 
to  the  grateftd  candidates.  A  cablegram  to  Washing- 
ton resulted  in  the  shipment  on  naval  supply  vessels 
of  8000  volumes,  which  were  equally  divided  between 
the  ships  and  hydroplane  stations  in  France.  Other 
consignments  followed,  including  a  hundred  different 
periodicals  by  subscription,  and  routes  were  mapped 
out  with  the  Navy  Department  for  supplying  books 
to  all  American  naval  vessels. 

From  the  first,  the  A.L.A.  received  hearty  coopera- 
tion from  the  authorities.  Vice-Admiral  Sims  assured 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  that  the  great  value  of  the 
Association's  services  in  increasing  the  contentment 
of  the  forces  was  fully  recognized,  and  that  its  efforts 
would  be  appreciated  by  thousands  of  men. 

The  Director  of  the  American  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 
Club  characterized  the  Library  War  Service  as  "one 
of  the  finest  things  which  this  war  has  called  forth 


88  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

from  our  own  country."  "The  books  which  you  have 
sent  to  the  Club,  both  in  Paris  and  Tours,  have  been 
eagerly  and  profitably  read  by  hundreds  of  our  men," 
he  added.  "They  have  been  a  real  contribution  to 
our  libraries." 

In  the  Army,  conditions  were  similar  to  those  in 
the  Navy.  In  every  phase  of  the  men's  lives  there  were 
periods  of  leisure  and  of  loneliness,  and  the  desire  for 
study  and  for  recreational  reading  was  widespread. 
But  the  situation  was  not  the  same  as  in  the  training 
camps  in  this  country.  The  army  in  France  was  in  the 
fighting  area  and  the  library  service  must  prove  that 
it  would  be  a  help  and  not  an  encumbrance.  In  the 
fall  of  1917  both  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the  Red  Cross 
had  established  library  sections,  the  former  under 
its  educational  department  and  the  latter  through 
its  recreation  department.  Both  these  organizations 
appreciated  the  possibilities  of  assistance  from  the 
A.L.A.  and  officially  indorsed  its  plans. 

The  promise  of  American  books  was  everywhere 
greeted  with  enthusiasm.  "The  men,"  Dr.  Raney 
says,  "did  not  like  the  English  substitutes  which  the 
Y.M.C.A.  had  felt  compelled  to  use.  Besides,  the 
London  market  was  going  dry  and  prices  were  ad- 
vancing. Editions  were  not  being  reprinted,  owing 
to  shortage  of  paper  and  labor.  Furthermore,  the 
great  British  organizations,  which  were  feeding  the 
British  armed  forces  on  a  huge  scale,  looked  with 
anxiety  on  American  competition,  so  that  a  moral 
issue  was  raised.  The  Red  Cross  was  so  desirous  of 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  89 

escaping  from  this  dilemma  that  it  offered  to  share 
its  present  tonnage  with  us  to  bring  over  American 
reading  material  for  our  hospitals  in  Europe. 

"The  Y.M.C.A.  had  no  tonnage  to  spare,  but  it 
could  help  in  another  way.  Men  needed  books  en 
voyage.  The  military  authorities  consented  to  have 
us  put  boxes  on  transports  for  deck  usage.  The 
Y.M.C.A.  secretaries  and  the  chaplains  agreed  to 
look  out  for  the  books  en  routes  and  to  re-box  and 
deliver  them  in  port.  Here,  going  into  their  ware- 
houses, they  would  be  subject  to  our  further  orders 
for  distribution." 

An  arrangement  was  worked  out  by  which  the 
A.L.A.  agreed  to  serve  the  "fit"  through  the 
Y.M.C.A.  and  the  "unfit"  through  the  Red  Cross. 
General  Pershing  pronounced  this  scheme  com- 
mendable and  the  service  welcome,  and  requested 
from  the  government  space  for  fifty  tons  of  books 
per  month  —  which  meant  more  than  a  million  vol- 
umes a  year  —  on  the  transports.  With  a  view  to 
avoiding  any  duplication  of  effort,  he  expressed  the 
desire  "that  there  should  not  be  any  competition  in 
supplying  this  matter  to  the  troops,  but  that  the 
work  should  be  centralized  in  the  American  Library 
Association." 

The  granting  of  this  request  and  the  provision  by 
the  Quartermaster  Department  of  a  warehouse  for 
the  reception  of  books  from  the  transports,  whence 
they  might  be  distributed  at  will,  made  it  possible 
to  begin  work  on  an  extensive  scale.  The  Fourth  of 


90  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

July  was  suitably  celebrated  by  the  delivery  of 
seventy-five  books  to  each  of  the  American  hospital 
trains  in  France,  and  as  rapidly  as  possible  selected 
libraries  were  established  in  each  of  the  base  and 
camp  hospitals  for  the  use  of  the  boys  who  had  been 
sent  down  from  the  front  line. 

From  that  time  on,  books  and  magazines  went 
everywhere.  They  were  used  in  the  front-line  trenches 
by  the  man  on  duty  and  while  waiting  for  the  order 
to  go  over  the  top;  in  the  reserve  areas  just  back  of 
the  front;  in  huts  and  other  places  of  shelter;  in  the 
training  camps  where  the  men  recently  arrived  were 
being  fitted  for  transfer  to  the  front;  in  the  disin- 
tegrating areas;  especially  in  the  rest  camps  in  the 
few  days  of  regular  surcease  from  advance  operations; 
at  the  bases  where  great  establishments  grew  up  at 
the  point  of  debarkation,  and  at  the  more  isolated 
places  where  the  foresters  and  engineers  were  work- 
ing. The  aim  was  to  furnish  any  books  the  men 
wanted,  whether  technical  publications,  reference 
works,  or  standard  fiction,  and  to  furnish  them  at 
the  time  when  they  were  wanted.  Records  taken  at 
random  from  the  file  at  Headquarters  show  that  at 
one  of  the  main  huts  492  books  were  used  972  times 
during  the  first  ten  days  of  the  service,  and  the  cir- 
culation was  limited  only  by  the  fact  that  there  were 
seldom  any  books  on  the  shelves.  Magazines  were  for 
trench  usage,  non-returnable. 

In  the  zone  of  advance  the  unit  of  library  service 
was  the  Division,  no  matter  over  how  wide  an  area 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  91 

it  might  be  spread  or  through  how  many  villages  it 
might  extend.  While  the  Y.M.C.A.,  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  and  the  Salvation  Army  aimed  to  get  a 
hut  in  at  least  the  chief  villages,  the  A.L.A.  found  it 
more  feasible  to  send  its  books  to  the  divisional  cen- 
ter, from  which  they  could  be  properly  distributed. 
When  the  Division  moved,  the  books  could  be  re- 
turned to  the  central  warehouse  of  the  organization 
through  which  they  were  being  circulated,  unless 
the  area  was  being  abandoned.  Some  degree  of 
wastage  was  inevitable,  but,  as  Dr.  Raney  said,  the 
loss  was  not  absolute,  as  long  as  a  worthy  volume 
remained  in  somebody's  possession. 

The  books  were  sent  out  from  the  dispatch  offices 
packed  in  strongly-made  unit  boxes,  with  screwed  lids 
and  a  central  shelf.  These  boxes  held  about  sixty  vol- 
umes each,  and  when  stacked  formed  a  sectional  book- 
case. Above  the  cases  was  placed  a  placard  headed 
WAR  SERVICE  LIBRARY 

provided  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States 
through  the 
AMERICAN  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 

There  followed  a  statement  announcing  that  the 
service  was  free  of  charge;  then  came  a  few  simple 
rules,  and  at  the  end  were  these  words: 

These  books  come  to  us  overseas  from  home. 

To  read  them  is  a  privilege. 

To  restore  them  promptly  unabused  a  duty. 

(Signed)  John  J.  PEBsmNCt 


92  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

A  visitor  to  the  Y.M.C.A.  hut  at  Neufchateau 
described  the  "Quiet  Room"  reserved  for  the  A.L.A. 
as  the  pleasantest  spot  in  the  vicinity.  Every  seat 
was  taken  and  several  men  were  standing  in  front 
of  the  bookcases  which  lined  the  four  walls.  "There 
was  no  noise,  no  bustle,  and  in  every  respect  it  re- 
minded one  of  a  modem  well-managed  library  in  the 
States." 

Permanent  Headquarters  were  opened  in  Paris  in 
April,  1918.  In  August  larger  quarters  were  secured 
at  No.  10  rue  de  I'Elysee,  in  a  building  leased  from 
the  proprietors  by  the  Y.M.C.A.,  which  uses  the 
upper  floors  for  its  educational  and  allied  depart- 
ments, leaving  the  entire  ground  floor  and  basement 
at  the  disposal  of  the  A.L.A.  The  basement  is  used 
for  packing  and  stock-rooms,  while  the  arrangement 
of  the  ground  floor  resembles  that  of  the  average 
small  library,  —  entrance  and  charging  desk  in  the 
center,  reading-room  on  one  side,  reference-room  on 
the  other,  and  stack-room  in  the  rear.  Here  the  ad- 
ministrative offices  of  the  overseas  service  were 
established,  in  charge  of  Mr.  Burton  E.  Stevenson, 
the  novelist  and  librarian  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  and 
a  central  reference  and  circulating  library  of  about 
ten  thousand  volumes  was  started.  This  library 
proved  very  popular  with  the  men  in  the  Paris  dis- 
trict. On  Sunday  afternoons,  especially,  they  crowded 
around  the  big  open  fires  to  read,  or  moved  quietly 
about  among  the  bookshelves,  hunting  for  favorite 
volumes.  Mrs.  Stevenson  tells  of  a  visit  paid  her  by 


I 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  9S 

a  young  soldier,  one  of  a  group  of  twenty-one  signal 
men  in  charge  of  telegraph  and  telephone  lines  lead- 
ing directly  to  the  front-line  trenches.  The  men  were 
living  in  a  half-ruined  chateau,  and  were  working  in 
twelve-hour  shifts,  a  day  and  night  trick.  It  was 
an  awfully  lonely  job,  the  boy  said,  especially  in  the 
slack  hours. 

"So  much  depends  on  us,"  he  said,  "we  don't 
dare  to  sleep.  Can't  you  give  us  some  books  to  help 
keep  us  awake?" 

Mrs.  Stevenson  filled  a  case  with  books  of  the  most 
thrilling  character,  Kipling,  O.  Henry,  Zane  Grey, 
Sherlock  Holmes,  and  Oppenheim,  and  the  signal 
corpsman  went  away  happy. 

An  American  Red  Cross  worker  about  to  return  to 
the  States  said  that  during  the  five  months  that  she 
had  been  in  Paris  there  was  no  other  spot  where  she 
had  such  a  feeling  of  home  as  she  did  at  the  A.L.A. 
Headquarters.  "I  cannot  express  my  appreciation  of 
the  privilege  of  being  able  to  find  the  companionship 
of  books  in  my  own  language,  nor  the  unfailing 
cordiality  and  friendliness  with  which  I  was  always 
welcomed  to  the  use  of  the  library,"  she  said,  and 
added  that  one  of  the  patients  for  whom  she  had 
requested  some  books  reported  that  the  number  of 
his  friends  increased  very  rapidly  when  the  other 
men  discovered  that  he  had  something  to  read. 

To  further  the  overseas  work  additional  dispatch 
offices  were  established  in  the  United  States,  at  New- 
port News,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York. 


94  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Every  available  means  of  getting  books  to  France 
was  used.  The  Army  tonnage  provided  for  about 
one  hundred  thousand  volumes  monthly,  twenty- 
five  thousand  volumes  were  sent  over  on  American 
Red  Cross  tonnage,  and  the  deck  shipments  on  trans- 
ports in  charge  of  Y.M.C.A.  secretaries  added  ap- 
preciably to  the  total.  The  records  show  that  up  to 
February  1, 1919,  a  total  of  one  million  eight  hundred 
thousand  volumes  had  been  shipped  to  France,  and 
that  libraries  had  been  established  in  six  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  Y.M.C.A.  centers,  in  forty  Knights 
of  Columbus  centers,  in  forty-one  Salvation  Army 
centers,  in  twelve  Y.W.C.A.  centers,  and  in  five  Jew- 
ish Welfare  Board  centers,  as  well  as  with  a  number 
of  miscellaneous  welfare  organizations,  such  as  the 
Moose,  the  American  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Club,  and 
the  like.  Each  section  of  the  American  Ambulance 
Service  had  been  given  a  book  collection;  similar 
service  had  been  extended  to  the  Americans  in  the 
Polish  army  and  the  Mallet  Reserve,  and  two  hundred 
•and  sixty-four  military  organizations  in  the  A.E.F. 
had  been  provided  with  libraries.  By  March,  the 
number  of  books  sent  overseas  had  passed  the  two 
million  mark. 

Books  were  sent  not  only  to  France  but  also  to  the 
American  troops  in  England,  Italy,  Archangel,  and 
Vladivostock,  and  to  American  prisoners  in  Germany. 
At  Aix-les-Bains,  the  recreation  center  for  the  Army, 
where  there  was  boating,  baseball,  athletics.  Lieu- 
tenant Europe's  famous  band,  and  a  theater,  the 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  95 

A.L.A.  had  a  well-rounded  collection  of  books  in 
the  Y.M.CA.'s  casino,  with  a  trained  librarian  in 
charge. 

In  order  to  provide  for  members  of  the  A.E.F.  on 
their  voyage  home,  and  also  to  forestall  any  neces- 
sity for  draining  out  of  France  the  books  now  there, 
all  transports  are  equipped  in  American  ports  with 
adequate  permanent  libraries,  to  remain  on  board 
as  long  as  the  transport  is  in  service. 

In  short,  it  has  been  the  aim  of  the  Library  War 
Service  to  provide  books  and  library  facilities  for 
American  soldiers  and  sailors  wherever  they  might 
be  —  at  home,  abroad,  in  camp,  in  the  hospital,  on 
shipboard,  in  out-of-the-way  comers  of  the  world, 
everywhere.  Close  relations  have  been  maintained 
not  only  with  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the  American  Red 
Cross  but  also  with  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  Sal- 
vation Army,  Jewish  Welfare  Board,  and  Y.W.C.A., 
in  order  that  the  books  turned  over  to  them  by 
the  A.L.A.  might  receive  such  administrative  super- 
vision as  was  possible  and  might  really  reach  the 
men  for  whom  they  were  intended.  Through  an  ar- 
rangement with  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the  American  Red 
Cross  some  of  the  librarians  who  were  included  in 
their  personnel  were  later  detailed  to  the  A.L.A.  for 
library  work.  In  the  spring  of  1919  the  overseas  staff 
numbered  about  fifty  persons. 

The  A.L.A.  has  also  done  a  great  deal  of  library 
work  of  a  special  nature.  It  organized  the  Intelli- 
gence Library  at  Chaumont,  and  furnished  many 


96  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

special  books  for  it  and  for  the  Army  School  Library 
at  Langres.  It  has  established  close  relations  with 
the  Association  des  Bibliothecaires  Frangais,  and 
the  sub-committee  on  Social  Ideas  of  "La  Renais- 
sance des  Cites,"  with  the  idea  of  making  American 
public  library  methods  better  known  in  France,  and 
of  encouraging,  where  possible,  the  development  of 
present  library  facilities  or  the  establishment  of  new 
ones. 

REGIONAL  LIBRARIES 

In  addition  to  the  central  library  at  Paris,  fourteen 
regional  libraries  are  maintained  at  points  where  the 
concentration  of  troops  is  greatest,  such  as  Bordeaux, 
Brest,  Le  Mans,  St.  Nazaire,  St.  Aignan,  Tours,  Toul, 
and  Coblenz.  These  correspond  roughly  to  well- 
organized  American  public  libraries,  and  serve  also 
as  supervisory  authorities  and  points  of  supply  for 
the  library  work  of  the  adjacent  region.  Each  is  in 
charge  of  a  trained  librarian,  often  with  "detailed" 
army  helpers.  At  St.  Aignan,  Brest,  and  Le  Mans 
special  library  buildings  have  been  erected;  in  the 
other  centers  suitable  and  attractive  quarters  were 
already  available  for  the  use  of  the  A.L.A.  At  Co- 
blenz, for  example,  the  central  library  for  the  use  of 
the  Army  of  Occupation  occupies  a  portion  of  the 
Festhalle;  branches  have  been  established  at  various 
points,  the  arrangement  being  very  similar  to  that  to 
which  the  soldiers  were  accustomed  in  the  training 
camps  in  the  United  States.  In  addition,  individual 


t3 

o 

a. 

O 
« 
H 

W 

CO 

P3 

> 

< 

H 

§ 
O 
O 

O 

Q 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  97 

requests  are  supplied  from  Paris  headquarters,  where 
many  appreciative  letters  are  received. 

One  from  a  Post  Liaison  Officer,  dated  January  21, 
1919,  is  worth  noting: 

"The  fine  books  and  magazines  which  have  been 
provided  have  not  only  helped  us  while  away  the 
long  winter  evenings  pleasantly,  but  they  have 
given  us  an  excellent  opportunity  to  study  history, 
literature,  travel,  biography,  language,  science,  and 
all  the  other  things  in  which  we  are  interested.  Our 
library  at  the  Y.M.C.A.  building  is  always  packed. 
In  addition  to  the  main  library,  each  squadron  has 
its  library  in  the  orderly  room  or  the  squadron  club 
room;  the  hospital  has  its  boxes  of  books;  the  officer's 
clubs  have  their  libraries,  and  I  was  gratffied  to  find 
while  I  was  Officer  of  the  Day  that  the  Guard  House 
was  stocked  with  its  shelf  of  books  which  the  men 
are  glad  to  read. 

"I  hope  you  may  have  an  opportunity  to  visit 
this  camp  sometime,  to  see  how  admirably  the  ideas 
of  the  American  Library  Association  for  soldiers  and 
sailors  have  worked  out  in  practice." 

A  chaplain  with  the  A.E.F.  in  Luxemburg  wrote 
for  additional  books,. which  were  needed  because 
their  four  companies  were  in  four  separate  towns. 
"We  want  you  to  know,"  said  he,  "that  we  are 
grateful  and  appreciative  of  this  cooperation,  and 
that  the  books  will  be  read  and  re-read  by  our  soldiers, 
who  are  hungry  for  just  this  sort  of  thing." 

"My  life  has  been  given  to  the  work  of  preaching," 


98  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

wrote  another  chaplain,  "but  I  recognize  that  good 
literature  reaches  a  great  many  more  men  than  any 
chaplain  can  reach  in  his  sermons." 

A  letter  from  Diisseldorf,  acknowledging  the  re- 
ceipt of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  volumes,  said 
that  the  books  were  being  put  out  on  the  card  system, 
and  over  half  of  them  had  been  drawn  during  one 
day  and  evening.  The  writer  added  that  he  should 
see  to  it  that  each  book  was  circulated  throughout 
the  entire  regiment. 

A  major  wrote  from  Ch&tillon-sur-Seine:  "The  men 
read  ravenously  these  days,  and  would  keep  a  big 
library  going." 

"The  boys  hardly  gave  me  time  to  note  down  the 
names  of  the  books  before  they  were  off  with  them," 
wrote  an  American  Red  Cross  worker.  "Even  the 
Commanding  OflScer  made  a  bee-line  for  *  There  Is 
No  Devil'  as  a  relief  in  his  morning  tour  of  inspec- 
tion. I  guess  up  till  to-day  he  thought  we  were  all 
devils,  more  or  less." 

An  appeal  for  books  from  Mayence  said  that  while 
at  the  larger  cities,  such  as  Coblenz  and  Treves, 
there  was  entertainment  of  various  kinds  for  officers 
and  men,  at  Mayence  there  was  little  of  interest. 
The  men  were  tired  of  entertainments  provided 
mostly  by  local  talent  and  wanted  something  to 
read.  One  captain  wrote  that  he  had  read  all  or 
nearly  all  of  the  books  sent  there,  in  order  to  be  able 
to  give  the  right  book  to  the  right  man.  He  had  had 
some  experience  in  library  work  and  promised  to 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  99 

take  as  good  care  of  the  books  as  could  be  expected 
under  the  conditions. 

A  corporal  wrote  from  Luxemburg,  returning  four 
books  that  had  been  loaned  him:  "Your  selection  was 
indeed  excellent.  I  had  heard  a  great  deal  of  'Seven- 
teen' and  had  wanted  to  read  it.  I  enjoyed  it  very 
much,  as  did  several  other  fellows  who  read  it.  I  also 
enjoyed  *The  Research  Magnificent,'  and  the  theories 
of  psychology  and  philosophy  which  Wells  advances. 
'The  Elementary  Agriculture'  was  a  great  benefit  to 
me,  and  if  you  can  send  me  some  other  books  on 
any  of  the  details  of  agriculture,  dealing  with  fer- 
tilizers, preparation  of  the  soil,  and  the  like,  as  they 
are  related  to  the  raising  of  com  and  other  crops 
in  the  Middle  West,  I  will  be  very  greatly  obliged. 
If  you  can  send  me  More's  'Utopia,'  Plutarch's 
*  Lives,'  or  any  works  by  Bergson  or  any  other  of 
our  modem  philosophers  I  will  greatly  appreciate 
it." 

A  Yankee  in  Germany  wrote  that  where  he  was  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  get  any  reading,  and  if  the 
A.L.A.  could  n't  send  him  something  he  should  lose 
his  mind.  A  couple  of  magazines  that  he  could  read 
and  pass  along  to  the  rest  of  the  boys,  some  good, 
live  stories,  and  an  English  and  German  dictionary 
were  among  the  wants  he  expressed. 

A  sergeant  in  the  Army  of  Occupation  wrote  to 
say  that  the  consignment  of  A.L.A.  books  received 
had  been  installed  at  the  Regimental  Club  and  the 
books  were  being  loaned  to  the  men  for  a  week  at  a 


100  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

time.  He  added  that  they  had  brought  a  complete 
library  with  them  from  Douglas,  Arizona,  their  home 
station,  but  had  had  to  leave  it  behind  when  they 
went  into  action  at  Chateau-Thierry,  as  all  excess 
weight  had  to  be  discarded  during  eight  months  of 
fighting  and  hiking.  "And  the  books  surely  come  in 
mighty  fiuae,  being  in  a  small  town  where  it  is  im- 
possible to  buy  any  literature  of  any  kind." 

A  colonel  of  an  Engineer  Corps  wrote  to  express 
his  appreciation  of  a  library  service  that  provided 
such  technical  books  as  the  ones  he  had  asked  for 
on  sewer  construction  and  sewage  disposal.  Many 
men  spoke  emphatically  in  their  letters  of  how  much 
it  had  meant  to  them,  situated  in  isolated  villages  in 
a  foreign  land,  during  a  long  period  of  waiting,  to 
have  at  their  disposal  new  books  on  a  great  variety 
of  subjects. 

**It  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance  at  this 
critical  period  to  keep  the  boys  amply  supplied  with 
good  reading.  You  have  helped  greatly  to  that  end," 
wrote  an  Army  chaplain  in  February,  1919.  "I  wish 
you  could  see  the  men  peruse  and  devour  the  books,'* 
said  another  letter.  "I  am  sure  it  would  more  than 
repay  you  for  your  splendid  gift." 

The  following  description  of  conditions  at  Le  Mans, 
written  by  Miss  Esther  Johnston,  gives  a  good  idea 
of  the  part  played  by  the  libraries  in  the  life  of  the 
overseas  camps: 

"The  daily  round  of  a  librarian  in  camp  in  France 
includes  all  activities  from  trying  to  supply  the  latest 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  101 

Imagist  poetry  to  mending  kit-bags.  She  sees  from 
morning  till  ten  at  night  a  constant  stream  of  wet, 
tired,  homesick,  bored,  disconsolate  men  —  men  suf- 
fering from  a  sudden  let-down  in  tension  and  from  a 
lack  of  occupation  for  their  minds.  Here  in  Le  Mans 
all  divisions,  except  those  of  the  Army  of  Occupation, 
come  on  their  way  home,  and  are  delayed  for  several 
months.  The  men  receive  word  from  well-intentioned 
relatives  at  home,  *Why  are  you  staying  over  in 
France  now  that  the  war  is  over?  WeVe  been  expect- 
ing you  back  ever  since  the  Armistice  was  signed.' 
Imagine  the  effects  of  such  letters  upon  men  who  are 
consumed  with  impatience  to  get  home  and  bored  to 
tears  by  army  routine  in  peace  time,  who  feel  that 
their  families  and  their  business  need  them  now  more 
than  the  army  does. 

"I  look  from  the  window  in  the  evening  into  a 
muddy  courtyard  where  a  file  of  men  waits  to  come 
into  the  canteen  and  the  reading-  and  writing-rooms. 
Many  are  from  remote  parts  of  the  area,  and  by  way 
of  celebrating  their  leave  from  camp  will  spend  the 
night  sleeping  on  the  stone  floor  here.  They  come  into 
our  small,  crowded,  smoky  reading-room  —  as  many 
as  can  get  in  —  to  security  and  warmth  and  forget- 
fulness  of  their  monotonous  life. 

"'Books!  We  have  n't  seen  them  since  we  hit  the 
trenches!  Hadn't  time  or  thought  for  them  there, 
but  it's  awful  to  be  without  them  now  that  the  fight- 
ing's over.'  Many  of  them,  most  of  them,  in  fact, 
have  been  without  reading  matter  of  any  kind,  and 


102  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

have  scarcely  missed  it  till  now.  With  what  eagerness 
and  complete  absorption  they  lose  themselves  again, 
in  novels,  in  magazines,  in  technical  books,  in  all 
subjects  but  those  of  war.  *La  guerre  estjinie,*  and  we 
don't  want  to  read  about  it,  although  we  do  talk 
about  it  most  of  the  time. 

"To-night  is  a  good  night  for  reading,  the  light 
cold  rain  outside  increasing  the  feeling  of  comfort  and 
security  roused  by  the  burning  logs.  The  room  has  a 
blue  haze  of  smoke  from  pipe  and  cigarette,  and 
there  is  the  glow  from  the  fire,  and  the  sheen  of  holly 
in  the  bowl  on  the  mantle.  The  place  is  quiet,  for  the 
Braggart,  who  had  tried  to  interest  every  one  in  his 
exploits,  has  been  silenced  by  a  hint,  not  subtly  given 
by  a  reader,  that  for  the  present  at  least  the  majority 
prefer  to  read  —  later  perhaps  to  talk. 

"The  boy  to  the  left  of  my  desk  is  indignant.  His 
rage  smoulders  for  awhile,  he  wriggles  impatiently 
in  his  chair,  and  then  bursts  out  in  an  undertone  to 
me,  *Look  at  this  Saturday  Evening  Post  —  right 
through  the  advertisements  and  stories !  Who  carries 
off  the  giri  in  the  last  chapter  every  time?  The  fella 
with  the  shiny  puttees.  Why  don't  the  illustrators 
remember  there's  a  few  buck  privates  in  the  army? 
I  look  in  all  the  magazines  and  papers  and  the  dough- 
boy does  n't  get  a  chance.'  The  boy  is  a  youngster 
from  the  West,  too  young,  by  all  the  rules,  to  enter 
the  army  even  now,  but  he's  been  through  Chateau- 
Thierry  and  the  Argonne  and  the  Hospital,  and  he 
hates,  as  he  says,  never  to  win  out  in  the  last  chapter. 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  108 

"There's  a  contractor  next  to  him  —  he  hasn't 
looked  up  from  his  book  during  all  this  tirade.  He's 
a  burly  man,  rather  old  for  the  draft  army,  and  he 
had  been,  of  late,  low  in  his  mind  until  he  was  asked 
to  give  the  course  on  building  to  the  men  in  the 
camp  school.  He's  arranging  his  lectures  now,  work- 
ing out  calculations  from  a  treatise  on  masonry  con- 
struction which,  thank  Heaven,  came  just  in  time 
with  the  last  shipment  of  books.  His  heavy  face  was 
almost  animated  when  he  explained:  *Even  the  fel- 
lows that  don't  think  of  going  into  the  contracting 
business  are  fixing  to  get  married  when  they  go  home 
and  want  to  know  something  about  houses.  So  they 
come  to  school.' 

"There's  a  boy  who  comes  in  every  night  to  read 
Western  stories,  although  part  of  the  time  he  merely 
sits  in  his  easy  chair  and  gazes  at  the  fire  with  com- 
plete satisfaction.  He  is  one  who  has  no  home  in  the 
States  to  return  to  —  has  never  known  a  home  — 
and  this  is  the  best  substitute.  He  has  supported  him- 
self for  twelve  years  (he  is  only  twenty  now)  and 
there  is  only  one  thing  he  gives  himself  credit  for. 
That  is  *  skinning  a  mule  as  well  as  any  man  in  Texas.' 
He  reads  Western  stories  to  keep  in  touch  with  the 
life,  and  looks  with  undisguised  contempt  upon  men 
who  growl  about  hardships  over  here. 

"Two  college  men  are  catching  up  with  their  work 
in  law  and  journalism  and  are  trying  to  forget  about 
those  newly  won  commissions  that  were  taken  from 
them  two  days  after  the  armistice  was  signed.  There 


104  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

are  two  others  who  come  eighteen  kilometers  on  Sat- 
urday to  read  Burdick's  '  Real  Property/  which  will 
give  them  the  material  they  will  need  for  their  teach- 
ing during  the  next  week.  For  their  first  visit  we 
had  n't  even  one  law  book  for  them,  but  when  several 
were  secured,  they  were  pathetically  grateful  and 
spent  their  town  leave  reading  them. 

"There  is  present  to-night  the  company  cook  who 
grins  sheepishly  at  all  the  jests  made  about  his  mess. 
He  showed  his  gratitude  for  an  antique  copy  of  the 
All- Story  Weekly  by  sending  to  the  library  an  enor- 
mous dish  of  his  piece  de  resistance  for  the  evening. 
He  had  not  been  a  reader  before  he  came  to  France, 
but  I  believe  he'll  have  a  way  of  dropping  into  a 
library  when  he  returns  to  the  States. 

"A  man  has  just  come  in  for  light  fiction  to  take 
his  thoughts  from  gloomy  things.  He  is  a  musician 
and  the  chief  duty  of  his  band  now  is  to  play  for  five 
or  six  funerals  every  morning.  *It  gets  on  a  fella's 
nerves,'  he  says,  *  knowing  the  way  those  chaps  got 
through  the  Argonne  and  St.  Mihiel  and  were  taken 
by  the  flu  when  they're  waiting  to  go  home.'  I  give 
him  the  most  diverting  novel  I  can  find,  for  his  is  a 
mournful  job.  Another  dismal  visitor  arrives.  He  is 
the  oflficial  photographer  of  the  funerals  and  wants 
me  to  choose  the  ones  of  his  photographs  which 
should  go  to  the  mothers. 

"A  boyish  second  lieutenant  comes  in.  He  has  for- 
gotten all  about  his  dignity  for  he  is  going  home  to- 
morrow and  wants  to  show  the  *rear  Bretagne  lace 


fc33     L .  "^  " 

^•SBb 

W 

hiW 

ni«'i'U 

l^^u^f^- 

sfflU^ 

Mp'^ 

i-' 

BACK  FROM  FRANCE 
In  the  hospital  ward  and  library.  Camp  Custer 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  105 

luncheon  set  he  has  for  his  mother.  He  holds  it  for 
every  one  to  see,  and  anxiously  inquires  of  the  libra- 
rian 'Is  190  francs  too  much  of  a  setback  for  it?' 

"Several  of  these  men,  and  many  who  were  here 
during  the  day,  are  rejoining  their  divisions  after 
leave.  They  have  come  from  St.  Malo,  from  Tours, 
Nice,  Cannes,  or  Chamonix,  some  of  them  roused  for 
the  first  time  to  the  beauty  of  a  land  where  they  had 
seen  only  mud  and  misery.  Now  they  want  to  know 
more  of  the  tradition  of  the  country,  to  read  *Tar- 
tarin,'  the  '  Hunchback  of  Notre  Dame,'  '  Les  Mise- 
rables,'  '  Old  Touraine,'  the  *  Hill  Towns  of  France,' 
*Life  of  Napoleon.'  We  have  n't  nearly  enough  his- 
tories of  France,  nor  grammars,  nor  French  books.  As 
one  man  says,  'The  best  way  to  advertise  a  thing  is 
to  knock  it,'  and  that's  the  eflFect  of  some  of  the 
criticism  of  things  French.  The  men  may  knock, 
most  of  them  do,  but  they  want  to  know  more  about 
the  country  and  we  have  lamentably  little  material 
for  them." 

What  the  work  of  the  A.L.A.  meant  to  the  men  at 
St.  Aignan  during  the  winter  of  1918-19  is  graphi- 
cally described  in  an  account  written  by  a  sergeant 
who  was  one  of  some  1200  candidates  for  oflScers' 
commissions  scattered  through  that  huge  camp. 

On  account  of  the  scarcity  of  wood  no  fires  were 
allowed  in  the  daytime  and  it  was  therefore  imcom- 
fortable  to  sit  down  in  the  barracks.  As  no  candles 
were  permitted  in  the  barracks  and  the  only  light 
came  from  two  smoky  lanterns  suspended  from  the 


106  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

rafters  it  was  impossible  to  read  during  the  long 
hours  of  darkness  of  the  dreary  winter  days.  Con- 
versation consisted  chiefly  of  grumbling  at  present 
discomforts  and  the  repetition  of  groundless  but  in- 
variably depressing  rumors  as  to  the  future.  One 
candidate  was  heard  to  remark  that  he  "  did  n't 
mind  living  like  cattle,  but  cattle  were  better  off 
because  they  could  n't  talk." 

The  Y.M.C.A.  huts  were  crowded  to  suffocation 
with  men  standing  about  awaiting  an  opportunity 
to  buy  something  and  talking  noisily  meantime, 
while  the  K.  of  C.  huts  were  overtaxed  by  diligent 
and  loquacious  letter-writers. 

As  the  candidates  for  commissions  were  not  ex- 
pected to  do  detail  or  fatigue  duty,  time  lay  espe- 
cially heavy  on  their  hands.  The  writer's  only  escape, 
he  says,  was  to  take  some  books  under  his  arm,  walk 
until  he  became  warm,  sit  down  on  the  ground  and 
read  until  he  became  cold,  then  walk  again  to  get 
warm.  The  only  source  of  books  was  the  salvage  pile. 
Every  morning  he  would  attempt  to  sort  out  of  a 
heap  of  discarded  clothes,  rubbish,  and  papers  some 
book  or  magazine  which  had  been  thrown  away. 
When  the  weather  was  stormy  —  and  it  either  rained 
or  snowed  nearly  every  day  —  he  would  tramp  about 
two  miles  to  a  shed  where  picks  and  shovels  were 
kept.  Here  he  could  read  in  peace  and  quiet,  though 
not  continuously  because  it  was  necessary  to  stop  at 
frequent  intervals  and  stamp  his  feet  vigorously  to 
restore  circulation. 


THE  A.L.A.  IN  FRANCE  107 

When  somebody  discovered  that  the  A.L.A.  had 
opened  a  hut  the  good  news  spread  rapidly,  and  it 
soon  became  the  gathering  place  for  all  the  candi- 
dates. Here  was  fulfilled  a  long-felt  want  for  a  clean, 
orderly,  quiet  place  where  one  could  read  and  think. 
The  room  was  warm,  comfortable,  and  well  lighted. 
There  were  curtains  at  the  windows  and  attractive 
posters  on  the  walls.  The  latest  EngKsh  illustrated 
magazines  and  American  periodicals  lay  in  profusion 
on  the  tables.  A  large  assortment  of  "worth  while" 
books,  including  many  recent  works  on  history, 
science,  and  literature,  was  in  constant  circulation, 
and  there  was  also  a  good  reference  Ubrary.  The 
room  was  presided  over  by  two  American  women, 
whose  influence  was  felt  the  moment  one  opened  the 
door.  The  men  stepped  quietly  and  spoke  in  lowered 
tones;  innate  politeness  came  to  the  surface,  and 
consideration  for  the  feelings  of  others  was  manifest; 
the  sympathetic  attention  of  these  two  women  was 
responsible  for  an  entire  change  of  atmosphere. 

At  almost  any  hour  of  the  day,  and  especially  in 
the  evening,  the  room  was  crowded  to  its  capacity 
of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty.  The  writer  of  the 
account  says  that  to  him  and  to  many  others  like 
him,  to  whom  an  active  business  career  had  afforded 
all  too  little  leisure  for  reading,  it  was  indeed  a  treat, 
and  will  always  be  remembered  with  sincere  grat- 
itude. 


CHAPTER  VI 
LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL 

In  September,  1918,  General  Pershing  granted 
franking  privileges  in  the  Army  Post  OflSce  on  all 
A.L.A.  mail  parcels.  This  rendered  possible  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  direct  mail  service  to  the  members 
of  the  A.E.F.  The  A.L.A.  was  also  authorized  to 
work  directly  with  military  organizations  and  to 
place  a  library  with  any  such  organization  if  the 
commanding  officer  requested  the  service  and  would 
detail  a  man  to  look  after  the  books. 

As  the  knowledge  spread  that  library  facilities 
were  available,  individual  requests  for  books  came 
in  from  all  quarters  and  from  every  grade  of  military 
service.  At  first  the  work  of  the  mailing  department 
was  carried  on  by  two  persons,  Mr.  Stevenson  and 
a  clerk,  but  its  rapid  and  continuous  increase  neces- 
sitated an  ever  larger  and  larger  staff,  until  a 
whole  roomful  of  typists,  clerks,  and  trained  librari- 
ans were  kept  more  than  busy.  Letters  asking  for 
everything  under  the  sun  were  received  by  the 
hundreds  every  day,  and  packages  of  books  were 
made  up  promptly  and  loaned  to  the  applicants  for 
a  month. 

The  signing  of  the  Armistice  was  followed  by  a 
deluge  of  requests,  especially  for  books  of  an  edu- 
cational nature.  During  the  month  of  January,  1919, 


LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         109 

more  than  twenty-five  hundred  individuals  were 
served  by  this  department  and  the  total  number  of 
volumes  mailed  was  33,603.  On  February  27  Mr. 
Stevenson  wrote  to  the  Washington  Headquarters  as 
follows: 

"The  demand  for  miscellaneous  reading  matter  is 
tremendous,  and  it  will  probably  interest  you  to 
know  that  as  a  result  of  the  advertisement  we  had 
last  Friday  in  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  our  yester- 
day's mail  consisted  of  at  least  twelve  hundred  let- 
ters asking  for  special  books.  I  am  looking  for  this 
deluge  to  continue,  and  we  are  struggling  to  get 
our  mail  department  large  enough  to  deal  with  it 
promptly." 

Although  popular  novels  circulate  widely,  a  large 
part  of  the  requests  are  from  serious  readers  who 
wish  to  keep  in  touch  with  their  particular  callings  in 
civilian  life,  to  brush  up  on  things  familiar  to  them 
before  the  war,  or  to  leam  what  they  can  from 
printed  matter  on  some  subject  in  which  they  are 
interested.  The  following  list  is  typical  of  the  variety 
of  books  and  subjects  asked  for :  biography  of  Darwin; 
water-colors;  elementary  drawing;  "Jean  Christophe 
in  Paris";  sketching;  Hardy's  "Dynasts";  Bertrand 
Russell's  "Mysticism  and  Logic";  agriculture  (per- 
haps the  most  popular  subject);  accounting;  poems 
of  Lamartine;  "Letters  of  Heloise  and  Abelard"; 
electrical  engineering;  book  in  Russian  for  an  edu- 
cated Russian;  complete  cook-book;  landscape  paint- 
ing; System  magazine;  textile  industries  of  Europe;      ^ 


110  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

railroad  freight  rates;  French  grammar;  trigonom- 
etry; furniture  making;  religious  education;  legends 
of  the  Rhine;  explosives;  Moli^re's  plays,  and  Bryce's 
"Holy  Roman  Empire."  Textbooks  and  technical 
books  are  much  wanted.  Himdreds  of  thousands  of 
volumes  have  been  purchased  to  meet  the  demands 
for  elementary  and  advanced  arithmetics,  higher 
mathematics,  grammars,  and  books  on  chemistry 
and  physics,  architecture,  mechanical  drawing,  bee- 
keeping, and  poultry  raising. 

One  man  wrote:  "I  am  enclosing  slip,  covering  offer 
I  wish  to  take  advantage  of.  I  want  a  book  on  hog 
raising  and  one  on  cotton  raising.  If  you  have  only 
one  of  these,  send  as  alternative  either  general  book 
on  preparation  of  land  for  irrigation  or  any  agricul- 
tural book  which  would  be  of  interest  to  one  con- 
templating settling  in  the  Southwest  of  the  United 
States.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  don't  know  a  blame 
thing  about  farming  and  judge  that  I  can  get  suf- 
ficient discouragement  from  reading  about  it  to 
prevent  any  heart-breaking  *back  to  the  land'  move 
in  actuality.  Should  you  have  nothing  answering  the 
above  description,  send  anything  you  may  deem  of 
interest,  except  the '  Infantry  Drill  Manual.'  As  a  va- 
grant mining  engineer  now  in  the  army,  I  get  these 
home-hungry  feelings  every  once  in  a  while,  and 
reading  about  such  things  sort  of  satisfies  the  crav- 
ing and  does  no  serious  harm." 

Another  man  asked  for  books  on  typography  and 
elementary  works  on  free-hand  drawing,  which  he 


LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         111 

said  would  be  of  great  help  to  him  in  brushing  up  on 
his  civilian  work,  which  was  advertising. 

An  advertisement  in  the  Stars  and  Stripes  called 
forth  a  request  for  books  which  would  be  useful  to 
traflBc  managers.  Material  dealing  with  tank  corps, 
decisions  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
or  state  railway  commissions,  the  history  of  New 
England  railroads,  or  anything  that  would  help  an 
industrial  traffic  man  in  problems  connected  with 
official  classification,  was  wanted. 

"Our  signal  battalion  has  four  books  to  read  in  its 
spare  time,"  said  another  letter.  "This  is  a  cry  from 
Macedonia,  so  please  listen  and  send  us  a  couple  of 
new  books  of  college  grade  on  the  geology  of  the 
Rhine  coimtry,  sociology  (Ross  if  possible),  or 
Moulton's  Astronomy.  If  none  of  these  are  obtain- 
able, send  anything  you  have  except  *  Robinson 
Crusoe'  or  *  Frank  Merriwell.*** 

The  gratitude  expressed  in  many  of  the  letters 
is  a  constant  stimulus  and  delight.  A  major  of  the 
Military  Police,  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  some 
novels  he  had  requested,  wrote  that  only  that  morn- 
ing a  lieutenant-colonel  had  asked  him  where  he 
obtained  such  good  reading  material. 

A  chaplain  said  that  the  fifty  books  which  had 
been  sent  him  had  helped  the  men  to  fight  oflF  home- 
sickness and  melancholy  while  they  were  at  the  front 
in  the  rain,  cold,  and  mud. 

"It  is  worth  more  to  me  to  get  these  books  than  I 
have  words  to  express,"  is  the  way  one  man  put  it. 


112  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

**I  know  of  no  more  splendid  work  than  yours,"  was 
the  feeling  of  a  private,  —  "to  put  good  books  into 
the  hands  of  the  men,  to  whom  they  mean  compan- 
ionship, renewed  ambition,  and  galleries  of  faces 
d*  autrefois.** 

A  private,  writing  to  thank  the  A.L.A.  for  supply- 
ing him  with  a  speed  textbook  of  Gregg's  shorthand, 
said  he  had  had  no  idea  that  they  would  have  in 
stock  a  book  on  the  subject  in  which  he  was  inter- 
ested, and  the  more  he  thought  about  it  the  surer  he 
felt  that  Headquarters  had  sent  back  to  the  States 
for  it;  he  was  accordingly  all  the  more  appreciative. 

"Please  accept  my  thanks  for  your  prompt  re- 
sponse to  my  request  for  books,"  said  another  letter. 
"They  are  received,  read,  and  returned.  I  am  espe- 
cially grateful  for  Twain's  'Personal  Recollections 
of  Joan  of  Arc'  I  was  billeted  for  many  weeks  in  the 
Domremy,  Mawey,  Burey,  Neufchateau,  and  Vau- 
couleur  region,  and  all  of  these  towns  are  familiar  to 
me.  I  am  now  in  Toul  where  Joan  of  Arc  received  her 
first  quiz  by  the  clergy." 

A  major  of  the  Machine-Gun  Infantry,  on  return- 
ing a  copy  of  Maxwell's  "Salesmanship,"  reported 
that  he  had  found  it  very  interesting,  and  asked  for 
another  book  on  the  same  subject. 

An  overdue  book  was  returned  by  a  private  with 
the  following  apology:  "Sorry  to  have  kept  you  wait- 
ing but  I  loaned  it  to  a  friend  of  mine  and  he  in  turn 
loaned  it  to  one  of  his  buddies.  I  certainly  thank  you 
many  times  for  your  trouble.  I  could  n't  have  picked 


EUROPEAN  HEADQUARTERS,  A.L.A.  LIBRARY  WAR  SERVICE 


xn  :^ 


tt 

o 

< 

j: 

%. 

<a 

0\ 

CD 

1 

U 

b 

H 

P^ 

& 

u 

a 

<f, 

Q 

v 

-f. 

i: 

W 

K 

o 

0} 

<5 

^ 

1^ 

s 

V 

< 

a 

^ 

p-irt 

H 

s^ 

;z; 

T3 

M 

> 

IS 

=e 

H 

c 

IXi 

B 

Ph 

S. 

£ 

O 

S 

l-H 

§" 

a 

w) 

< 

^o 

S 

p^ 

LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         113 

out  a  better  book  from  the  racks  myself  than  you 
have  sent." 

The  losses  incurred  in  this  mail  service  are  almost 
incredibly  few,  and  the  hbrarians  say  that  the  per- 
centage of  them  due  to  any  fault  of  the  boys  is  neg- 
hgible.  They  tell  of  cases  where  soldiers  marching 
from  one  post  to  another,  during  the  war,  actually 
carried  books,  in  addition  to  their  equipment,  for 
days,  until  they  could  find  a  place  from  which  to 
mail  them  back.  And  they  show  a  telegram,  sent 
by  an  eager  doughboy,  anxious  to  obey  the  rules, 
yet  who  did  want  that  book  two  weeks  more,  and 
might  he  keep  it  that  long?  An  immediately  wired 
reply  assured  him  that  he  might. 

A  sergeant,  writing  to  explain  his  failure  to  return 
a  copy  of  "Favorite  Poems,"  stated  that  it  had  been 
received  on  October  26,  1918,  when  his  regiment  was 
on  the  front  north  of  Verdim.  "Probably  you  gentle- 
men remember  that  it  was  rather  active  up  there  at 
the  date  the  book  came  and  we  were  driving  the 
Germans.  I  lost  all  of  my  personal  belongings,  as  it 
was  too  tiresome  conveying  them  on  such  an  ad- 
vance as  we  were  making,  and  your  book  was  left  in 
one  of  the  dugouts  up  there.  I  hope  some  other  sol- 
diers enjoyed  the  book  as  much  as  we  did,  but  I  was 
sorry  I  was  unable  to  fulfill  my  promise  of  returning 
it,  and  I  hope  you  received  it  through  some  other 
source." 

One  conscientious  private  wrote  to  say  that  the 
book  which  had  been  loaned  him  was  not  worth  re- 


114  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

turning  to  the  library,  because  while  he  was  reading 
it,  lying  on  a  cot  somewhere  near  the  front,  a  bullet 
came  along  and  pierced  it.  "If  you  feel  that  it  was 
due  to  any  carelessness  of  mine,  I  would  willingly 
pay  for  the  loss,"  he  concluded. 

A  soldier  returned  four  books  with  the  statement 
that  "When  a  Man  Marries"  was  being  read  by  one 
of  the  oflScers  and  would  be  sent  back  by  a  later  mail. 
"Each  book,"  he  added,  "has  been  read  by  at  least 
eight  different  persons." 

"Magazines  are  always  very  popular  with  the  men 
and  if  you  can  send  us  some  occasionally  they  will 
be  greatly  appreciated,"  wrote  a  lieutenant  of  In- 
fantry, from  Griselles. 

The  executive  oflBcer  of  an  isolated  post  in  France 
wrote  to  express  his  appreciation  of  a  collection  of 
books  that  had  been  sent  him  for  his  men.  "Realiz- 
ing the  advantages  which  a  collection  of  good  whole- 
some books  will  give  to  a  command  cut  off  as  we  are 
from  other  forms  of  amusement,"  said  he,  "I  would 
cordially  support  the  development  of  a  library  here, 
and  if  there  is  anything  I  can  do  to  stimulate  action 
I  hope  you  will  call  upon  me." 

"In  the  lonesome  and  dreary  woods  of  Nonsard 
where  we  are  still  camped,  those  books  are  a  real 
boon  to  the  boys,"  wrote  a  chaplain.  "Some  officers 
would  like  to  read  again  Milton's  'Paradise  Lost.* 
May  I  ask  for  a  copy  at  your  convenience?" 

A  private  belonging  to  the  Medical  Detachment 
wrote  that  he  had  charge  of  a  library  at  Flavigny- 


LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         115 

C6te  d'Or.  He  had  been  assistant  camp  librarian  at 
Camp  Zachary  Taylor,  and  on  his  transfer  to  the 
Medical  Detachment  had  written  to  Paris  Headquar- 
ters for  books.  He  had  made  a  neat  shelf  in  the  med- 
ical billets  in  an  old  casino  building.  It  was  almost 
constantly  empty,  and  the  men  were  waiting  their 
turn  for  the  books.  News  of  the  arrival  of  the  books 
had  spread  through  the  battalion  in  the  village  and 
the  librarian -was  receiving  requests  for  volumes  cov- 
ering all  sorts  of  subjects.  He  said  that  each  of  the 
men  carried  a  book  from  the  Camp  Dix  library  to 
France,  and  many  had  told  him  that  they  wanted 
to  keep  the  books,  but  had  to  discard  them  along 
with  their  general  equipment  when  they  went  over 
the  top  at  St.  Mihiel  and  Grandpre.  "The  men  here 
are  really  literature  hungry  and  devour  anything 
readable  in  sight." 

A  private  wrote  from  a  base  hospital  in  the  Gi- 
ronde  that  he  was  under  orders  to  return  to  the 
United  States,  but  he  wished  to  assure  Paris  Head- 
quarters that  he  would  be  one  of  its  many  backers 
when  he  got  home.  "Should  there  be  another  cam- 
paign for  funds  like  the  United  War  Work  Campaign 
you  may  be  sure  that  I  will  be  a  booster  for  the  Asso- 
ciation." 

"It  is  impossible  for  us  to  keep  these  books  in  the 
library,  as  the  men  and  oflficers  are  continually  call- 
ing for  them,"  wrote  a  captain,  acknowledging  the 
Receipt  of  some  packages  of  books  and  magazines. 

^  chaplain  ^ho  had  seen  service  in  Camp  Jackson 


116  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

and  in  Camp  Sevier  and  had  handled  the  Association 
books  on  the  transport  going  over,  wrote  from  some- 
where in  France  to  say  how  glad  he  was  to  find  that 
again  the  A.L.A.  was  "on  the  job."  "We  are  in  the 
mud  here,"  he  said,  "but  these  books  will  help  won- 
derfully. Many,  many  thanks!" 

Later  he  wrote:  "Since  my  first  letter  I  have  been 
given  the  responsibility  for  about  seven  himdred 
troops  in  two  other  towns  covered  by  this  regiment. 
I  can  use  another  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  books 
and  all  the  magazines  I  can  lay  hands  on  to  great 
profit.  My  librarian  is  a  hustler  and  has  never  failed 
to  respond  to  the  fullest  extent  of  his  ability  in  all 
matters,  so  that  our  men  are  getting  all  that  can 
possibly  be  expected  at  this  camp,  but  for  something 
in  their  billets  to  while  away  the  time  there  is  a  great 
need.  How  can  men  idling  the  time  away  be  expected 
not  to  gamble  and  get  into  other  forms  of  evil.'*  Send 
me  everything  you  can  as  fast  as  you  can.  I  now  have 
five  towns  and  some  two  thousand  men.  My  CO. 
and  all  other  officers  will  give  any  sort  of  help  I  need 
to  handle  anything  you  send  me  for  the  men.  I  will 
return  anything  you  wish  returned  when  we  have 
finished  with  it.  Just  raise  the  sluice  and  let  the  flood 
come." 

Another  chaplain  expressed  pleasure  at  finding 
some  books  on  history  and  civics  in  the  consignment 
sent  him,  as  there  was  a  demand  for  information  on 
those  topics.  He  added  that  he  knew  nothing  in  the 
social  service  line  with  the  exception  of  facilities  for 


LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         117 

letter  writing  that  was  more  appreciated  by  both 
officers  and  men  than  the  opportunity  to  read.  Just 
then  he  was  in  need  of  some  short  plays  or  operettas 
for  amateur  performers,  and  said  that  even  the  old 
reliable  "Box  and  Cox"  would  be  welcome. 

Still  another  reported  that  he  had  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  conducting  the  library  on  the  honor  system. 
"The  books  have  been  the  chief  aid,"  he  said,  "in 
keeping  the  soldiers'  minds  from  stagnating  and  in 
making  for  good  will  and  contentment  in  the  mo- 
notony of  their  present  life." 

The  hospital  librarian  at  Newport  News,  Virginia, 
wrote  to  the  Washington  Headquarters  as  follows: 

"A  young  man  who  returned  from  France  last 
week  came  to  me  and  said,  *I  want  to  tell  you  — 
and  I  wish  every  A.L.A.  worker  could  know  it  — 
how  very  much  we  have  appreciated  the  service  they 
have  given  us.  I  myself  am  a  student  of  architecture 
and  when  I  was  about  to  move  to  a  rest  camp  I 
wrote  to  the  Paris  Headquarters  asking  for  three 
books  on  architecture,  which  I  very  much  wanted. 
In  less  than  a  week  I  received  them,  and  then,  going 
into  the  rest  camp,  I  found  two  of  the  very  same 
books,  as  well  as  a  well-chosen  collection  of  fiction 
and  technical  books.  Wherever  I  was  in  France,  on 
the  transport  coming  back,  and  in  this  camp,  I  have 
been  especially  struck  with  the  excellence  and  variety 
of  the  collections.'  While  he  was  here,  only  two  or 
three  days,  he  read  a  history  of  Europe  (Hazen), 
and  two  of  the  best  of  the  new  war  books." 


118  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

THE  CALL  FOR  BOOKS 

Every  day  brought  to  the  Paris  Headquarters  new 
opportunities  to  make  available  the  books  furnished 
by  the  generosity  of  the  American  people  for  the 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  France  awaiting  release.  But 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  the  very  excellence  of  the 
service  worked  against  a  suiBBciency  of  material,  as 
each  instance  of  a  need  satisfactorily  met  led  to 
further  demands  upon  the  resources.  Unfortunately, 
the  stock  of  general  literature,  particularly  fiction, 
which  was  originally  donated  by  the  public,  was  soon 
reduced  to  such  a  point  that,  although  the  A.L.A.  was 
purchasing  in  New  York,  Paris,  and  London  enor- 
mous quantities  of  popular  American  and  English 
fiction,  travel,  and  biography,  requests  could  be  sup- 
plied only  in  part.  Many  of  the  two  and  a  quarter 
million  books  that  were  sent  over  have,  of  course, 
been  worn  out,  or  lost  through  the  exigencies  of  war 
and  transportation. 

Every  message  received  at  Washington  from  the 
overseas  representatives  during  the  winter  of  1918- 
19  emphasized  the  need.  "Demand  for  books  un- 
believably great  and  supply  inadequate,"  cabled  Mr. 
Stevenson  on  January  16.  On  the  13th  of  February  he 
wrote  as  follows: 

"You  will  be  distressed  to  know  that  for  the  past 
ten  days  we  have  had  practically  no  books  available 
for  distribution.  We  have  purchased  fifteen  thousand 
copies  of  Nelson  fiction  here  in  Paris,  which  we  are 


LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         119 

having  prepared  as  rapidly  as  possible,  but  this  will 
be,  of  course,  only  a  stop-gap.  The  demand  for  mis- 
cellaneous books  was  never  as  great  as  it  is  now,  and 
we  should  strive  to  meet  it  in  every  possible  way.  It 
is  a  disappointment  to  know  that  the  result  of  your 
December  drive  was  so  unsatisfactory.  I  surely  trust 
that  you  will  continue  to  make  the  appeal  in  the 
larger  cities  of  the  United  States  and  try  to  get  it 
through  in  some  way  to  the  people  over  there  that 
the  men  over  here  need  books  now  more  than  they 
have  ever  done.  It  will  be  at  least  six  months,  per- 
haps a  year,  before  we  shall  dare  to  slacken  our 
efforts  in  this  respect." 

In  a  cable  to  the  War  Department  General  Per- 
shing asked  that  everything  possible  be  done  to  ex- 
pedite the  shipment  of  books,  as  they  were  badly 
needed. 

The  following  cablegram  was  received  on  February 
16  from  Dr.  Herbert  Putnam,  General  Director  of 
Library  War  Service,  who  went  to  France  in  January 
to  determine  questions  of  policy  connected  with  the 
overseas  work: 

"  Urge  everything  possible  to  stimulate  book  and 
magazine  donations.  Need  never  greater  than  at 
present.  At  least  a  million  more  fiction  and  miscel- 
laneous books  demanded  within  next  six  months  to 
maintain  army  morale." 

The  librarian  at  Brest  reported  in  the  early  part 
of  March  that  there  were  considerably  less  than 
seven  thousand  volumes  to  satisfy  the  insistent 


120  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

demands  of  some  seventy  thousand  men  in  that 
district. 

At  Le  Mans,  which,  as  the  American  Embarkation 
Center,  is  the  biggest  camp  in  France,  from  two  hun- 
dred thousand  to  three  hundred  thousand  men  are 
camped  within  an  area  of  one  hundred  square  miles. 
"The  book  supply  is  woeful,"  wrote  the  librarian. 
"There  isn't  nearly  enough  material,  and  requests 
are  coming  from  every  side.  Men  who  have  not  seen 
books  for  eighteen  months,  who  have  been  in  trenches 
and  at  the  front  until  they  came  to  the  deadly  mo- 
notony of  their  muddy  camp  at  Le  Mans,  are  still 
without  books.  Their  officers  plead  for  boxes  of 
books,  while  the  best  that  can  be  furnished  is  a  sop 
of  two  or  three.  ...  I  hope  there  will  be  a  constant 
flow  hereafter. 

"This  explanation,  written  in  the  midst  of  many 
interruptions  from  muddy,  tired,  and  bored  dough- 
boys, is  because  we've  heard  rumors  of  a  let-down 
in  the  sending  of  books  from  America.  I  think  it's 
probably  untrue,  for  we  hear  all  sorts  of  rumors;  but 
you  will  know  the  facts,  and  if  there's  a  project  for 
stopping  the  sending  of  books,  I  know  you'll  put  in 
a  strong  *word."* 

A  later  letter  from  an  American  Red  Cross  worker 
at  Le  Mans  stated  that  in  the  writer's  opinion  the 
need  for  books  in  the  A.E.F.  was  greater  than  ever 
before.  With  the  excitement  of  the  war  over  and 
with  no  incentive  for  further  military  training,  it  is 
only  to  be  expected  that  the  men  should  be  restless 


soldiers'  library  maintained  by  the  a.l.a.  in  the 
fest  halle,  coblenz,  germany 


©  Cummiltet  oh  fublic  Information 

HOSPITAL  TRAIN  IN  FRANCE 

It  was  important  that  our  soldiers  be  provided  with  reading 
matter  while  on  long  journeys 


LIBRARY  SERVICE  BY  MAIL         121 

and  impatient  of  restraint,  and  that  in  a  country 
where  they  did  not  speak  the  language  nor  under- 
stand the  people,  recklessness  and  lack  of  consider- 
ation for  the  rights  of  others  should  develop.  "We 
could  use  a  million  books  here  in  France  right  now," 
she  said,  "and  I'm  sure  that  if  the  people  at  home 
realized  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  as  we  realize 
it,  we  should  have  no  trouble  at  all  in  getting  them. 
We  don't  want  our  boys  to  destroy  the  good  reputa- 
tion they  have  made  for  themselves." 

"We  have  lamentably  little  material  of  any  kind 
in  view  of  the  enormous  demand,"  said  another 
letter  from  the  librarian  of  the  central  library  at 
Le  Mans.  "Most  of  the  books,  except  the  fiction, 
must  be  reserved  for  reference  use  only,  on  accoimt 
of  their  constant  use  in  the  room  and  the  lack  of 
duplicates.  Necessarily  most  of  the  men  are  deprived 
of  the  steady  use  of  the  books  they  require,  as  they 
live  so  far  away  and  have  too  short  a  leave  from  their 
camps  to  spend  much  time  here,  centrally  located 
as  the  place  is.  It  is  for  these  men,  especially,  in  ad- 
jacent places,  small  isolated  camps,  that  we  need 
more  books,  —  books  of  all  sorts,  but  principally 
technical  and  good  fiction.  For  these  critical  months 
we  want  all  the  diverting,  informing,  and  absorbing 
books  we  can  get  to  meet  an  opportunity  and  a 
responsibility." 

"There  is  much  and  growing  need  for  recreational 
reading,"  said  still  another  letter  from  France. 
"Rumor  says  that  the  December  drive  availed  little 


122  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

in  material,  but  the  boys  who  are  depending  on  the 
A.L.A.  must  not  feel  that  the  interest  in  them  has 
died  out;  so  every  one  is  hoping  that  the  collection  of 
gift  books  for  the  boys  who  are  waiting  to  go  home 
will  go  on  with  renewed  vigor.** 

By  May,  1919,  the  overseas  demand  had  been  so 
well  filled  that  attention  was  turned  to  enlarging 
the  libraries  on  the  troopships.  In  order  to  provide 
books  in  the  quantities  desired  and  to  keep  pace  with 
the  large  number  of  replacements  needed  to  make 
up  for  the  wear  and  tear  on  shipboard,  a  good  many 
thousand  volumes  stored  in  the  dispatch  offices  or 
released  by  the  closing  of  camps  were  diverted  to 
transport  service. 


CHAPTER  Vn 
NAVAL  LIBRARIES  AND  TRANSPORT  SERVICE 

The  commander  of  a  destroyer  has  made  the  state- 
ment that  in  his  judgment  the  most  useful  work 
done  by  the  seven  organizations  acting  under  the 
Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities  was  the 
placing  of  books  and  magazines  on  the  vessels.  It  is 
difficult  to  realize,  he  says,  how  every  scrap  of  paper 
is  read  over  and  over  again  on  the  long  trips;  even 
newspapers  several  years  old  are  welcomed  by  the 
men  as  a  means  of  diverting  their  thoughts,  which 
in  spite  of  all  that  can  be  done,  tend  to  become  more 
and  more  self-centered.  This  opinion  has  been  con- 
firmed by  various  Y.M.C.A.  men  who  have  been 
engaged  in  naval  work. 

Most  representatives  of  the  Library  War  Service 
who  have  served  in  both  military  and  naval  camps 
and  have  thus  had  an  opportunity  for  comparison 
are  agreed  that  the  men  in  the  Navy  are  even  more 
desirous  of  reading  matter  and  more  appreciative  of 
what  is  supplied  them  than  the  men  in  the  Army. 
The  reasons  for  this  are  easily  understood.  Possi- 
bilities of  recreation  on  shipboard  are  necessarily 
Hmited,  and  there  is  little  distraction.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  long  cruises,  in  the  course  of  which  there 
is  considerable  free  time,  afford  an  excellent  chance 
not  only  for  recreational  reading,  but  also  for  self- 


124  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

education.  The  men  are  eager  for  advancement 
when  there  is  any  possibility  of  promotion,  and  are 
quick  to  take  advantage  of  whatever  opportunities 
may  be  at  hand. 

A  letter  written  by  an  American  sailor  "somewhere 
in  the  Mediterranean"  in  August,  1918,  illustrates 
this  point.  News  of  his  desire  for  books  had  reached 
the  A.L.A.  through  his  mother,  and  an  effort  had 
been  made  to  supply  his  wants.  In  acknowledging 
the  receipt  of  the  package  he  wrote:  "You  cannot 
imagine  how  grateful  I  am.  We  have  no  books  here. 
This  is  a  new  American  Base  and  nothing  is  fin- 
ished so  far.  .  .  .  The  books  are  fine.  I  could  not 
have  picked  out  ones  that  suited  me  better.  I  am  a 
machinist,  and  if  you  should  send  any  more  books 
please  enclose  one  on  steam  amd  turbine  engines." 

During  the  United  War  Work  Campaign  a  navy 
man  —  a  young  fellow  from  Portland,  Oregon  — 
came  to  an  A.L.A.  booth  and  looked  at  the  books  with 
so  much  interest  that  the  librarian  in  charge  asked 
him  if  he  had  found  A.L.A.  books  in  the  Navy.  He  re- 
pUed  enthusiastically  that  he  certainly  had,  on  several 
troopships,  on  a  battleship,  and  even  on  destroyers, 
and  that  they  had  been  the  greatest  boon.  He  had 
been  seven  months  up  in  the  North  Sea  and  off  the 
Irish  coast,  and  had  found  it  pretty  dull  work.  "The 
boys  sure  do  appreciate  the  books,"  he  assured  her. 

About  six  o'clock  one  evening  two  sailors  appeared 
at  the  Newport  News  Dispatch  Office,  carrying  a 
canvas  sack. 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    125 

"Is  this  that  War  Service  Library?"  asked  one. 
He  was  told  that  it  was. 

"Well,"  said  he,  "weVe  been  looking  for  this 
place  ever  since  we  were  in  Glasgow.  Can  we  get 
some  books  for  oiu*  crew  here?"  And  then  he  pulled 
a  disreputable-looking  piece  of  paper  out  of  his 
pocket  and  displayed  a  list  of  books,  with  a  heading 
something  like  this:  "An  effort  will  be  made  to  get 
some  books  from  the  War  Service  Library.  Write  the 
name  of  any  book  you  want  on  this  paper." 

There  was  every  kind  of  title  on  the  sheet,  and  the 
list  had  run  onto  the  next  page:  Arithmetic;  "  The 
Little  Shepherd  of  Kingdom  Come";  Jesse  James; 
"Graustark";  Knight's  "Seamanship";  a  book  on 
rhetoric,  and  so  on. 

As  it  was  getting  late  he  was  asked  if  he  would 
come  the  next  day  for  his  books. 

"No,"  he  said.  "We  go  out  into  the  stream  the 
first  thing  in  the  morning,  and  we  had  to  get  special 
leave  to  come  over  here  to-night,  —  we've  been  ask- 
ing everybody  we  met  about  this  place  and  only 
found  it  to-day.  You  see,  we  found  one  of  those  pic- 
tures in  a  book  in  Glasgow,  telling  about  the  books 
that  soldiers  and  sailors  could  have,  but  nobody  on 
the  ship  knew  where  we  could  get  them,  so  finally  I 
wrote  to  a  teacher  of  mine  out  in  Oklahoma  —  she's 
on  one  of  those  War  Committees  for  ladies  —  and 
she  told  me  to  go  over  to  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  maybe 
they  would  know.  So  I  went  to  the  Y.M.C.A.  over 
in  the  town  where  we  landed,  and  they  did  n't  know. 


126  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

and  to-day  we  came  over  to  the  Y  headquarters,  and 
we  just  came  from  there,  —  just  now."  And  then, 
producing  the  canvas  sack,  he  added,  "We  brought 
this  bag  along  to  carry  them  back  in." 

"But  you  can  never  carry  that  bag  full  of  books 
over  to  your  boat,  —  it's  perfect  miles  from  here!" 
they  told  him.  "You'll  have  to  go  on  three  street- 
cars and  two  ferries,  and  then  walk  nearly  half  a 
mile." 

"Yes,  we  know.  We  came  that  way,  —  that's 
nothing.  You  don't  know  how  strong  we  are,  and 
maybe  we'll  meet  some  of  the  other  fellows.  My! 
but  they'll  holler  when  they  see  us  coming  with  all 
those  books!" 

By  this  time  the  entire  staff  was  hunting  Zane 
Grey  and  Jesse  James,  and  in  the  end  the  Dispatch 
Office  truck  made  the  trip,  with  the  two  sailors  sit- 
ting on  their  canvas  bag  and  showing  the  way.  In 
about  two  months  they  appeared  again,  armed  with 
a  mail-sack  and  another  list,  and  exchanged  their 
first  collection  with  great  pride  and  assurance.  They 
had  learned  the  way  from  Glasgow. 

The  majority  of  the  men  in  naval  prisons  go  back 
into  the  service.  While  in  prison  they  are  unable  to 
purchase  books  for  themselves,  but  many  of  them 
make  good  use  of  the  prison  Ubraries.  In  one 
instance,  a  man  who  left  the  Naval  Prison  at  Ports- 
mouth, New  Hampshire,  with  a  dishonorable  dis- 
charge became  within  a  year  the  highest  non-com- 
missioned officer  in  the  U.S.  Army.  In  the  opinion  of 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES   127 

the  chaplain,  his  success  was  unquestionably  due  to 
his  studies  and  researches  while  a  prisoner. 

Although  little  has  been  written  about  the  libraries 
maintained  by  the  Navy  Department,  libraries  on 
shipboard  are  no  new  departure.  They  existed  dec- 
ades before  the  A.L.A.  was  even  thought  of.  Robert 
W.  Neeser,  in  his  "Landsman's  Log,"  a  book  of 
great  interest  to  every  civilian  who  has  to  do  with 
naval  vessels,  has  this  to  say  on  the  subject: 
^  "The  American  Navy  was  the  first  to  institute  the 
custom,  and  the  first  ship's  library  was  placed  on  the 
old  ship-of-the-line  Franklin  in  the  early  twenties. 
Few  agencies  in  recent  years  have  done  more  to 
raise  the  tone  of  the  enlisted  men  in  the  service,  to 
improve  their  standards  of  character  and  eflSciency, 
and  to  add  to  their  contentment,  than  these  well- 
selected  libraries  which  are  now  placed  on  board  our 
ships." 

The  problem  for  the  A.L.A.  was,  therefore,  how 
to  supplement  and  not  duplicate  the  existiug  re- 
sources of  the  Department.  Several  ways  were  found 
in  which  this  might  be  done.  In  the  first  place,  books 
could  be  provided  for  submarine  chasers,  submarine 
patrol  boats,  mine  sweepers,  etc.  While  the  Navy  has 
been  liberal  in  its  allowance  for  libraries  for  the  larger 
units  of  its  fleet  it  has  made  no  provision  for  these 
smaller  vessels,  owing  to  the  fact  that  on  these 
vessels  there  is  little  space  in  which  books  can  be 
locked  and  safeguarded,  —  a  method  in  vogue  be- 
cause of  the  personal  responsibility  of  the  Pay- 


128  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

master  for  the  books  placed  in  his  charge.  Yet  life  on 
these  boats  is  often  tedious,  and  books  and  maga- 
zines are  much  appreciated.  "Take,  as  an  example," 
says  Charles  H.  Brown,  in  an  article  on  this  subject, 
"the  case  of  a  man  on  board  a  patrol  boat,  lying  idly 
in  the  trough  of  the  sea  for  five  days  at  a  stretch.  At 
times  he  listens  intently,  with  all  his  senses  keyed  to 
the  breaking  point,  for  the  soimd  of  the  propeller  of 
an  invisible  submarine.  Later  he  watches  a  companion 
listen.  There  is  nothing  to  see  but  an  occasional  boat, 
there  is  no  variety  to  his  occupation,  and  no  recre- 
ative facilities  to  ease  the  nervous  strain.  If  you  were 
that  man,  would  you  not  welcome  any  means  what- 
soever which  would  take  you  away  for  a  few  hours 
from  the  deadening  grind  and  give  you  a  change  of 
thought  which  is  necessary  for  every  normal  life?  Or 
imagine  yourself  on  a  vessel  not  over  one  hundred 
and  ten  feet  long,  running  for  two  days  from  Ambrose 
Channel  on  the  first  lap  to  France,  returning  and 
starting  at  once  over  again,  with  no  recreation  and 
the  only  hope  of  excitement  depending  upon  the  sight 
of  a  German  periscope.  Would  you  not  agree  with 
the  Petty  Officer  who  exclaimed  that  'books  almost 
saved  his  reason'?  If  you  do  not,  just  try  for  one 
hour  to  locate  at  a  distance  of  ten  feet,  the  point  of 
a  needle  on  a  blank  wall,  with  the  possibility  that  an 
unseen  needle  might  send  hundreds  to  their  death 
and  you  to  an  everlasting  memory  of  responsibility.'* 
The  many  new  bases  and  naval  air  stations  which 
in  the  rapid  expansion  of  the  Navy  sprang  up  almost 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES  129 

over  night  offered  another  field  of  action.  As  com- 
pared with  military  camps  these  bases  were  small. 
In  most  cases  they  had  no  Y.M.C.A.  or  K.  of  C.  huts. 
They  were  often  located  at  inaccessible  points  at  a 
distance  from  railroad  stations  and  centers  of  popu- 
lation. The  men  were  well  educated  and  ambitious. 
The  officers  in  charge  were  interested  in  their  men 
and  eager  to  help  them,  in  some  cases  even  expressing 
a  willingness  to  pay  for  certain  books  which  the  men 
wanted.  As  was  to  be  expected,  the  most  successful 
and  most  used  libraries  were  those  at  points  where 
the  officers  in  charge  assumed  personal  supervision. 

Library  service  was  also  maintained  at  the  larger 
camps  which  the  war  had  called  into  existence,  such 
as  the  Naval  Training  Station  at  Pelham  Bay  Park, 
the  Receiving  Ship  at  New  York,  the  City  Park 
Barracks,  and  many  others  throughout  the  country. 
In  some  cases,  as  at  Pelham  Bay,  the  library  was 
housed  in  a  special  building;  in  others  the  men  were 
reached  through  the  Y.M.C.A.,  K.  of  C,  Red  Cross, 
or  the  chaplain. 

Collections  of  books  were  furnished  for  the  Supply 
ships,  which  were  not,  as  a  general  thing,  equipped 
with  libraries  by  the  Fleet  Supply  Base.  Many  of 
these  vessels  were  small,  the  crews  varying  from 
fifty  to  three  hundred.  They  did  not  have  the  speed 
of  the  big  liners,  and  some  of  them  required  four 
weeks  for  a  trip.  Reading  matter  was  consequently 
all  the  more  desirable.  That  it  was  welcomed  was 
shown  by  the  fact  that  nearly  always  on  the  return 


180  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

trip  one  of  the  officers  would  make  a  point  of  getting 
into  communication  with  the  A.L.A.  headquarters 
and  requesting  an  exchange  of  books.  Often  he  would 
ask  for  special  books,  almost  invariably  non-fiction, 
which  the  men  desired.  The  acting  librarians  on 
board  these  vessels  were  volunteers,  the  position 
usually  drifting  into  the  hands  of  the  man  who  was 
most  interested  in  books.  In  the  majority  of  cases  it 
was  the  radio  operator,  sometimes  the  medical  officer, 
and  in  still  other  cases  the  supply  officer  or  the  store- 
keeper. 

The  original  intention  was  that  the  books  placed 
on  board  should  be  left  on  the  other  side  for  the  use 
of  the  troops  in  France,  but  this  was  soon  found  to  be 
impracticable.  The  crews  were  too  eager  to  retain  the 
books  for  their  return  trip.  Furthermore,  the  docks 
in  France  were  so  congested  that  the  deck  shipments 
could  not  be  regularly  handled.  So  arrangements 
were  made  for  the  installation  of  permanent  libraries 
which  could  be  exchanged  at  the  home  port  when 
desired.  A  few  of  the  deck  shipments,  however,  did 
reach  the  other  side  and  formed  the  foundation  for 
libraries  over  there.  With  what  enthusiasm  they  were 
received  may  be  seen  from  the  following  letter  written 
to  the  Association  by  a  Camp  Quartermaster: 

*'I  take  great  pleasure  in  thanking  you  for  your 
kind  gift  of  a  box  of  books  to  the  boys  of  the  302d 
Steve.  Regt.  Through  the  kindness  of  the  boys  on 
the  U.S.S.  El  Occidente  we  received  the  books  this 
morning.  I  assure  you  the  boys  regard  them  as  a  real 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES  131 

treat  and  they  will  while  away  many  hours  that 
otherwise  might  be  very  dull.  Gifts  like  these  tend 
to  bring  home  the  fact  more  forcibly  that  our  people 
back  in  God's  Own  Country  are  at  all  times  thinking 
and  doing  all  in  their  power  for  their  own  boys  over 
here.  I  might  also  add  that  the  books  are  the  comer- 
stone  of  a  library  which  we  hope  will  provide  good 
clean  amusement  for  the  boys  of  the  regiment." 

Books  were  also  sent  to  a  fleet  of  sixty-five  supply 
ships  plying  in  European  waters,  many  of  them  en- 
gaged in  carrying  coal  from  Cardiff,  Wales,  to  Brest, 
and  other  French  ports  of  debarkation  and  em- 
barkation. 

Naturally  the  attention  of  the  Library  War  Serv- 
ice had  been  directed  first  to  the  supplying  of  books 
and  magazines  to  vessels  and  camps  not  otherwise 
provided  for,  and  it  was  not  until  after  the  return  to 
home  ports  of  the  fleet  which  had  been  operating  in 
European  waters  that  a  systematic  attempt  was 
made  to  discover  what  reading  matter,  if  any,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  libraries  furnished  by  the  Fleet  Supply 
Base,  could  be  used  on  these  vessels. 

There  were  two  reasons  why  the  A.L.A.  could  be 
of  service  in  furnishing  books  to  these  battleships 
and  cruisers  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  were  already 
equipped  with  a  supply  adequate  as  to  numbers. 
The  first  was  that  in  the  case  of  the  Library  War 
Service  there  was  no  restriction  as  to  personal  finan- 
cial responsibility.  The  chaplains  often  wanted  books 
for  the  use  of  the  Sick  Bay,  or  for  the  various  di- 


182  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

visions  of  the  ship  where  the  men  were  accustomed 
to  congregate,  but  could  not  use  for  such  purposes 
those  provided  by  the  Fleet  Supply  Library,  as  the 
Paymaster  was  unwilling  to  take  chances  of  any 
volumes  being  lost. 

The  second  reason  was  that  sf>ecial  technical  books 
could  be  supplied  much  more  quickly  through  the 
Library  War  Service  than  through  the  regular  chan- 
nels; in  response  to  requests  certain  books  had  been 
thus  supplied  during  the  year  1918.  While  the  Fleet 
was  in  New  York  Harbor  the  various  vessels  were 
visited  and  the  chaplains  consulted  as  to  the  need  of 
reading  matter.  In  every  case  certain  books  or  mag- 
azines were  requested.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  most  insistent  call  of  all  was  for  the  "World 
Almanac,"  sixty  copies  of  which  were  purchased  for 
the  various  units  of  the  Fleet  during  the  three  days 
before  it  sailed. 

The  most  gratifying  feature  of  the  work  has  been 
the  number  of  requests  received  for  further  service. 
A  typical  letter,  from  the  chaplain  of  the  U.S.S. 
Wyoming,  stated  that  the  one  copy  of  Captain 
Lecky's  "Wrinkles  in  Practical  Navigation"  on 
board  was  in  great  demand  and  two  more  copies 
could  be  used  to  advantage;  he  also  said  that  several 
officers  and  men  had  asked  him  if  he  could  not  get 
them  copies  of  Admiral  Jellicoe's  new  book. 

The  chaplain  of  the  U.S.S.  Kentucky  wrote  to  say 
that  some  time  before  he  had  secured  through  the 
Newport  News  Dispatch  Office  about  a  hundred 


< 


< 


NAYAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    133 

"extra  fine  books."  They  had  been  doing  double 
duty  ever  since  coming  aboard  the  ship  and  quite  a 
number  of  them  had  been  literally  read  to  pieces. 
He  desired  to  express  his  appreciation  and  in  the 
same  breath  to  ask  for  another  donation. 

The  few  technical  books  among  the  novels  and 
stories,  he  went  on  to  explain,  had  been  put  to  such 
good  use  that  he  wanted  more,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
place  in  the  hands  of  the  men  who  were  studying  for 
advancement  in  their  respective  branches  of  the 
service  up-to-date  textbooks  which  would  be  a  real 
help  to  them.  He  enclosed  a  list  of  books  on  medicine 
and  nursing  which  would  be  useful  to  men  studying 
along  these  lines,  though  not  connected  with  the 
Medical  Department.  Among  other  wants  were  tech- 
nical books  for  a  class  of  naval  electricians  and 
books  on  wireless  telegraphy  for  a  radio  class.  The 
greatest  need  of  all,  in  his  estimation,  was  for  text- 
books of  higher  mathematics,  plane  and  spherical 
geometry,  trigonometry,  algebra,  and  arithmetic. 
"We  have  quite  a  number  of  men  who  are  study- 
ing for  commissions,  and  the  need  of  these  books  is 
imperative,"  he  concluded. 

The  results  of  the  work  with  the  Fleet  while  it  was 
in  New  York  Harbor  seemed  to  warrant  its  extension, 
and  with  the  hearty  approval  of  the  Commission  on 
Training  Camp  Activities  an  A.L.A.  representative 
was  sent  in  March  to  Guantanamo  Bay,  Cuba,  where 
the  Fleet  was  assembled  for  spring  manoeuvers,  in 
order  to  follow  up  the  work  already  done,  to  supply 


134  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

certain  books  needed,  and  to  aid  the  Welfare  Officer 
in  the  distribution  of  books  to  the  different  divi- 
sions of  the  various  units.  There  were  also  many 
vessels  in  the  fleet  assembled  in  Cuban  waters  which 
were  not  in  New  York  Harbor  and  had  not  been 
suppUed. 

This  proved  a  successful  venture.  Books  were  on 
hand  for  distribution  at  a  time  when  there  was  a 
lively  demand  for  them.  The  number  of  vessels  in  a 
small  area,  together  with  the  accessibility  of  the 
A.L.A.  Headquarters,  made  it  easy  for  every  officer 
interested  to  visit  the  office  personally  and  select  the 
desired  books  from  the  stock  on  hand.  In  receiving 
requests  for  special  books,  in  displaying  late  naval 
technical  works,  and  in  exchanging  and  circulating 
books  the  A.L.A.  representative  practically  acted  as 
librarian  of  the  Fleet.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  fleet 
athletics  were  in  full  swing,  supplies  were  being 
taken  aboard,  target  practice  was  in  progress,  and 
several  vessels  were  coaling  ship,  the  response  to  the 
message  sent  by  the  Chief  of  Staff  to  all  vessels  of  the 
Fleet,  calling  attention  to  the  service,  was  practically 
universal.  In  five  days  nearly  fifteen  thousand  vol- 
umes, including  seventeen  hundred  volumes  of  non- 
fiction,  were  furnished  to  seventy  vessels. 

Needs  varied  according  to  the  character  of  the 
vessels.  As  the  battleships  already  had  well-equipped 
technical  libraries,  their  greatest  need  was  for  fiction. 
And  the  A.L.A.  fiction  suited.  As  one  man  said, 
"Whoever  selected  these  books  evidently  intended 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    135 

that  they  should  be  read  when  they  got  aboard." 
Interest  in  technical  works,  which  were  the  latest 
and  best  available,  was  keen,  however,  and  there 
were  many  requests  for  American  histories,  books 
on  American  diplomacy  and  citizenship,  textbooks 
of  algebra,  trigonometry,  calculus,  and  physics.  The 
"World  Almanac"  and  a  new  World  War  history 
had  a  vigorous  run.  About  one  thousand  technical 
books  and  six  thousand  volumes  of  fiction  were  dis- 
tributed among  seven  battleships,  to  serve  nineteen 
thousand  eight  hundred  men. 

The  destroyers  presented  a  different  problem. 
Their  naval  library  appropriation  is  much  smaller 
than  that  of  the  battleships,  and  the  space  available 
for  library  use  is  very  limited.  It  is  impossible  to  have 
a  real  library  system  on  board.  What  they  need  is  a 
small  number  of  books  readily  accessible  to  the  men, 
which  can  be  exchanged  for  a  new  collection  when- 
ever they  reach  port.  The  percentage  of  loss  result- 
ing from  free  access  to  the  books  is  slight  compared 
to  the  enjoyment  and  the  service  rendered. 

From  a  list  of  magazines  approved  by  the  Asso- 
ciation each  destroyer  was  invited  to  select  ten  sub- 
scriptions, and  most  of  them  eagerly  availed  them- 
selves of  the  privilege. 

Of  course  not  much  of  a  library  can  be  established 
on  a  submarine,  yet  they  all  wanted  books.  They 
especially  wanted  technical  publications,  —  books 
on  Diesel  engines,  naval  architecture  and  engineer- 
ing, machinery,  and  all  new  books  touching  on  late 


1S6  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

developments  in  submarines  and  the  work  of  the 
submarine  in  the  war.  Each  of  them  also  received 
about  forty  volumes  of  fiction,  selected  by  the  men 
themselves  from  the  stock  on  display  at  the  oflSce. 
In  addition  a  good  collection  of  fiction  and  a  number 
of  magazine  subscriptions  were  sent  to  the  mother 
ship,  with  the  understanding  that  these  books  and 
magazines  would  be  available  not  only  to  its  own 
crew  but  to  the  crews  of  the  submarines  as  well. 

Supply  and  repair  ships  and  the  hospital  ship 
Solace  were  given  books.  The  sub-chasers,  which  had 
been  previously  outfitted,  exchanged  their  old  col- 
lections for  a  new  selection. 

At  the  Naval  Station  about  five  hundred  men,  in- 
cluding the  crews  of  chasers,  tugs,  water  and  oil 
barges,  and  visiting  supply  and  auxiliary  vessels,  the 
men  at  the  station  hospital  and  the  coaling  station, 
a  company  of  marines  doing  guard  duty,  and  the 
personnel  of  several  radio  stations  so  isolated  that 
they  are  sometimes  out  of  touch  with  the  world  for 
three  months  at  a  time,  look  to  the  central  library  in 
the  recreation  building  for  reading  matter.  About 
three  hundred  and  fifty  books  were  found  here.  Ac- 
tion was  taken  to  establish  a  library  of  at  least  one 
thousand  volumes  and  to  encourage  the  development 
of  a  branch  system  for  the  outlying  points. 

Five  hundred  volumes  of  fiction  were  sent  to  the 
recreation  building  at  Deer  Point,  and  it  is  proposed 
to  have  a  much  larger  library  there,  with  the  idea  of 
serving  not  only  the  marines  stationed  there,  but  also 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    137 

the  thousands  of  sailors  who  come  ashore  to  use  the 
Fleet  athletic  fields  and  recreation  grounds. 

The  work  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  wherever 
the  Fleet  is  assembled  in  large  units  there  is  an  op- 
portunity for  library  service,  particularly  in  the 
matter  of  exchanging  books  for  the  smaller  vessels 
which  are  unable  to  carry  large  collections.  It  seems 
evident  from  these  experiments  that  the  establish- 
ment of  dispatch  offices  at  various  points,  in  charge 
of  librarians  who  would  initiate,  encourage,  and 
superintend  the  work,  a  good  system  of  securing 
special  books  with  a  minimum  of  delay  and  red  tape, 
and  above  all,  the  adoption  of  the  policy  of  free  ac- 
cessibility to  the  books  on  the  part  of  the  men,  as 
much  more  satisfactory  in  results  than  the  plan  of 
strict  financial  responsibility  and  locked  closets, 
would  help  greatly  in  making  the  existing  library 
service  of  the  Navy  Department  more  efiFective. 

TRANSPORT  SERVICE 

From  the  A.L.A.  dispatch  offices  at  Hoboken, 
New  York,  Brooklyn,  Newport  News,  Boston,  and 
Charieston  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  trans- 
ports have  been  equipped  with  permanent  hbraries 
for  the  use  of  the  troops  returning  from  France.  When 
the  ship  reaches  its  American  port  the  book  collection 
is  overhauled  and  renewed,  and  a  fresh  stock  of  maga- 
zines put  on  board  for  the  next  trip.  At  first  books 
were  furnished  in  the  ratio  of  one  to  every  four  men, 
but  so  great  was  the  demand  that  it  was  soon  found 


138  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

necessary  to  double  and  even  treble  the  supply.  Ofl5- 
cers  asked  for  a  book  for  each  man.  The  provision  of 
reading  matter  has  proved  of  inestimable  value  as  a 
means  of  relieving  the  tedium  and  discomforts  of  the 
voyage  and  keeping  the  men  quiet  and  contented.  It 
is  related  that  once  when  a  transport  with  no  library 
on  board  was  held  up  for  five  days  the  craving  for 
something  to  read  became  so  great  that  an  old  Boston 
newspaper  and  an  ancient  magazine  were  cut  up  and 
divided  among  the  men.  At  the  end  of  the  internment 
some  of  them  could  recite  verbatim  shaving-soap, 
tooth-paste,  and  dry-goods  store  advertisements. 

In  most  instances  the  books  have  been  looked  after 
by  Y.M.C.A.  secretaries,  chaplains,  or  some  of  the 
ship's  officers.  The  experiment  of  putting  them  in 
charge  of  trained  librarians  proved  so  successful, 
however,  that  the  Library  War  Service  decided  to 
place  a  librarian  on  every  transport  carrying  four 
thousand  or  more  troops. 

The  experiences  of  the  first  transport  librarian, 
Mr.  H.  H.  B.  Meyer,  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  are 
naturally  of  especial  interest.  He  reports  that  when 
the  Mongolia^  carrying  4400  men,  was  six  days  out 
from  France,  every  one  of  the  1700  A.L.A.  books  on 
board  was  in  circulation.  "The  men  were  hungry  for 
books,"  he  says.  "As  soon  as  they  came  aboard  at 
St.  Nazaire,  and  discovered  the  presence  of  a  library, 
I  had  a  fighting  line  ranged  before  my  window  which 
lasted  several  days.'* 
^   The  greatest  demand  was  for  western  stories  and 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    139 

love  stories  by  American  authors.  Then  came  the  call 
for  books  on  agricultm-e.  Books  on  machinery  went 
out  rapidly,  and  there  were  specific  requests  for  books 
on  boiler-making,  bee-keeping,  and  navigation.  The 
desire  for  poetry  —  Longfellow,  Tennyson,  Whittier, 
Service,  Kipling,  and  Poe  —  was  surprisingly  wide- 
spread. One  man  asked  for  Masefield,  one  for  Dante, 
and  one  for  Omar  Khayydm.  There  were  several 
readers  for  Ruskin  and  for  Emerson's  "Essays." 
Shakespeare  was  popular,  especially  "Macbeth," 
"Hamlet,"  and  "Romeo  and  Juhet."  One  man,  an 
Italian,  read  all  the  Shakespeare  that  the  A.L.A. 
collection  contained,  five  plays.  Magazines  distrib- 
uted to  the  men  on  deck  the  first  afternoon  were 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  during  the  rest  of  the 
voyage. 

Every  book  found  a  reader.  "I  studied  my  men 
carefully,"  says  Mr.  Meyer.  "I  knew  that  the  books 
in  the  library  were  well  selected  and  that  there  was  a 
potential  reader  for  every  one.  In  the  case  of  some 
books,  I  was  not  wholly  successful  the  first  time. 
Hawthorne's  'Blithedale  Romance,'  for  instance, 
came  back  to  me  twice.  The  first  man  brought  it  back 
after  haM  an  hour.  He  said  it  was  'too  slow.'  The 
second  man  kept  it  a  little  longer,  but  brought  it  back 
finally  with  the  observation  that  it  was  *too  high- 
brow,' but  in  the  third  man  it  found  its  reader.  He 
kept  it  for  two  days,  and  returned  it  with  the  declara- 
tion that  it  was  the  finest  book  he  had  ever  read.  He 
asked  for  more  Hawthorne." 


140  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

During  the  last  day  or  two  of  the  voyage  there  was 
a  rush  to  return  books  to  the  oflBce,  but  reading  con- 
tinued up  to  the  very  time  the  vessel  docked.  When 
the  books  were  gathered  together  again  it  was  found 
that  they  had  received  remarkably  good  care  from 
the  men,  and  that  practically  every  book  could  be 
accounted  for. 

Another  transport  librarian,  Mr.  Henry  S.  Green, 
who  sailed  from  New  York  on  the  Matsonia,  says  that 
before  the  ship  had  passed  the  Goddess  of  Liberty 
the  first  book,  a  copy  of  Robert  Service's  "Rhymes 
of  a  Red  Cross  Man,"  had  been  loaned  to  a  member 
of  the  crew.  The  circulation  on  the  outward  bound 
voyage  ran  from  twenty  to  forty  books  a  day,  mostly 
to  men  of  the  ship's  crew  of  four  hundred.  In  addition 
to  this  recorded  circulation  the  Navy  oflBcers  and 
passengers  made  free  use  of  about  four  hundred  of 
the  A.L.A.  books  which  had  been  placed  in  bookcases 
in  the  Ward  Room.  The  ship's  library  supplied  by  the 
Bureau  of  Navigation  and  in  charge  of  the  Navy 
chaplain  was  put  into  commission  and  circulated  a 
considerable  number  of  books  among  the  members 
of  the  crew. 

On  the  homeward  voyage  two  men  were  often 
needed  to  issue  books  and  take  cards  fast  enough  to 
keep  the  line  of  borrowers  at  the  book  window  from 
becoming  congested.  On  two  days  the  circulation  ran 
over  three  hundred,  and  some  of  the  readers  called 
for  "a  book  a  day."  The  turn-over  of  the  more  popu- 
lar titles  was  remarkably  rapid,  some  of  the  book- 


^  ' 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    141 

cards  bearing  as  many  as  eight  date  stamps  in  the 
ten  days  dm-ing  which  books  were  issued. 

By  the  end  of  the  fourth  day  out  from  St.  Nazaire 
not  more  than  two  hundred  books  were  left  undis- 
turbed on  the  shelves,  most  of  them  "the  classics." 
One  day  the  librarian  laid  out  on  the  shelf  under  the 
charging  window  about  twenty  volumes  of  Dickens, 
Scott,  Thackeray,  EUot,  Ward,  James,  Howells, 
and  Hawthorne.  A  man  from  Montana  came  along 
and  asked  for  something  by  Jack  London,  Zane  Grey, 
B.  M.  Bower,  Rex  Beach,  or  G.  B.  McCutcheon.  On 
being  told  that  all  the  books  by  those  authors  were 
out  just  then  he  looked  over  the  shelf  of  "classics," 
pronounced  it  "a  bum  collection,"  and  demanded  a 
magazine. 

Some  vocational  books  were  called  for,  but  the 
purpose  of  the  most  of  the  reading  was  manifestly 
recreational.  The  men  were  mostly  from  states  be- 
yond the  Mississippi  and  wanted  books  by  American 
authors,  dealing  with  present-day  conditions  in  the 
United  States,  especially  stories  of  outdoor  life  and 
adventure. 

A  Y.M.C.A.  secretary  who  had  made  five  round 
trips  on  the  Matsonia,  and  who  had  opportunities 
to  observe  the  activities  of  the  men,  told  the  libra- 
rian that  in  his  opinion  at  least  three  times  as  much 
use  was  made  of  the  books  by  the  men  on  board  as 
on  any  of  his  previous  trips.  He  added  that  whether 
the  books  had  anything  to  do  with  it  or  not,  there  was 
apparently  far  less  gambling  going  on  than  usual. 


142  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  problem  of  adequate  quarters  on  the  trans- 
ports presented  many  difficulties  and  its  solution  re- 
quired the  exercise  of  considerable  ingenuity.  On  the 
Matsonia  the  stateroom  assigned  to  the  A.L.A.  had 
to  be  shared  with  the  young  men  detailed  to  look 
after  the  films  for  the  "  movies  "  which  were  exhibited 
nightly  in  different  parts  of  the  ship,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  close  the  library  two  or  three  hours  a  day, 
during  the  "rewinding"  of  the  films.  But  as  the  film- 
winders  were  always  ready  to  do  a  turn  at  the  charg- 
ing window  when  there  was  a  run  on  the  bookcases, 
the  combination  of  books  and  movies  worked  fairly 
well. 

On  another  vessel,  which  brought  back  6000 
troops,  the  space  provided  for  library  purposes  was 
partly  occupied  by  the  Army  dispensary.  In  this  case 
a  simple  arrangement  prevented  confusion  and  made 
it  possible  for  both  kinds  of  work  to  be  carried  on: 
those  who  applied  for  medicine  filed  by  on  the  port 
side,  while  those  who  wanted  books  passed  a  railed 
enclosure  on  the  starboard  side. 

In  one  instance  no  central  point  of  distribution  was 
available,  but  a  plan  was  worked  out  to  meet  this 
emergency.  Two  boxes  of  books,  averaging  seventy 
volumes,  were  placed  in  each  of  the  larger  troop  com- 
partments and  one  box  in  each  of  the  smaller  com- 
partments. In  each  of  these  divisions  a  detail  was 
chosen  to  supervise  the  books  and  to  receive  requests 
from  those  who  wanted  vocational  works  and  other 
non-fiction.  These  classes  were  kept  in  a  locker  room 


NAVAL  AND  TRANSPORT  LIBRARIES    143 

on  the  third  deck  below,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  each 
forenoon  the  A.L.A.  representative  was  on  duty  there 
to  supply  the  wants  of  those  who  desired  serious 
reading.  The  place  was  soon  discovered,  and  many 
soldiers  appeared  at  the  appointed  hour.  One  man 
came  every  day  and  before  the  trip  was  over  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  a  copy  of  each  of  eight  books  on 
agriculture.  Although  a  way  of  meeting  the  situation 
was  thus  found,  the  experience  convinced  the  libra- 
rian that  a  distribution  point  accessible  to  the  readers 
was  really  necessary,  and  before  leaving  the  vessel 
in  New  York  he  obtained  from  the  Executive  OflBcer 
a  promise  to  have  a  compartment  walled  in  for  the 
library  on  one  of  the  promenade  decks. 

In  addition  to  placing  books  on  board  troopships 
the  A.L.A.  distributed  newspapers  when  the  men 
embarked  in  France,  and  whenever  possible  supplied 
home  papers  the  day  the  ship  docked.  Local  news- 
papers were  glad  to  cooperate  with  the  Association  and 
frequently  printed  special  editions  to  be  given  to  the 
men  when  they  landed  on  this  side.  With  what  eager- 
ness papers  containing  "real  home  news"  were  re- 
ceived may  easily  be  imagined. 


CHAPTER  Vm 

AMERICAN  MILITARY  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES 

In  the  shell-shock  ward  of  a  huge  military  hospital 
I  came  across  a  young  fellow  doing  a  bit  of  wood- 
carving.  There  was  a  look  in  his  face  which  invited  a 
chat. 

Pausing  beside  him  I  asked,  "How  long  have  you 
been  here?" 

"  Oh-h,  a-about  a-a  y-year,"  he  stuttered.  "  W-when 
I  c-came,  I  c-could  n't  t-talk  at  all.  N-now  I  c-can 
t-talk  p-pretty  w-well." 

"Indeed  you  can,"  said  I  with  cheerful  mendacity. 
"Tell  me,  are  you  married?" 

"N-no,"  said  he.  "I  w-was  g-going  b-back  to 
Da-akota  t-to  m-marry  a  g-girl  t-there,  b-but  a 
N-norwegian  c-cut  m-me  out." 

"That  was  too  bad,"  I  sympathized;  "but  you 
must  remember  that  every  cloud  has  its  silver  lining." 

"0-h-h,"  he  replied  with  the  utmost  serenity,  "I 
d-don't  mind.  I  t-think  h-he  d-did  m-me  a  jolly  good 
i-turnr 

My  attention  was  arrested  a  few  minutes  later  by 
a  young  man,  the  very  personification  of  gloom,  who 
held  his  head  in  both  hands  and  stared  at  the  floor. 
After  a  little  hesitation  I  went  up  to  him  and  offered 
him  a  smoke.  There  was  a  slight  flicker  of  animation 
as  he  accepted  it. 


< 

H 

-H 

Oh 
'Jl 

o 

o 

I— I 

H 
-^ 

< 

a 

Q 
H 

2; 

OJ 

H 

2: 

K 
H 

O 
H 

O 

o 

w 

o 
o 

s 

2; 

« 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES    145 

"How  long  have  you  been  here  ?"  I  inquired. 

"I  don't  know,"  he  replied  listlessly. 

With  the  hope  of  penetrating  his  apathy  I  ventured 
further,  "What  is  the  last  thing  you  remember  before 
you  came  here?" 

His  face  lighted  up  instantly  and  he  gave  me  an 
interesting  and  graphic  account  of  the  advance  in 
which  he  was  knocked  out. 

As  I  listened  I  wondered  if  his  were  not  the  kind  of 
case  which  would  respond  to  the  cheering  influence  of 
good  illustrated  magazines.  Books  that  take  the  mind 
off  the  war  are  frequently  prescribed  by  the  physi- 
cians, and  selected  reading  of  a  crisp,  bright  variety 
proves  very  helpful. 

To  these  poor  broken  lads  some  author  may  be  able 
to  say; 

You  will  hardly  know  who  I  am,  or  what  I  mean; 
But  I  will  be  health  to  you  nevertheless 
And  filter  and  fiber  your  blood. 

After  a  man  is  carried  off  the  field,  his  mind  keeps 
reverting  to  the  horrors  he  has  experienced.  What  he 
needs  most  is  something  which  can  make  him  forget 
what  is  behind  him  —  and  what  is  probably  before 
him.  One  of  the  worst  phases  of  hospital  life,  after 
the  agony  of  pain  has  been  relieved,  is  the  boredom  of 
confinement.  A  shattered  arm  or  an  infected  leg  can 
keep  a  man  in  bed  for  months  without  any  actual 
pain.  His  main  problem  is  how  to  get  through  the 
day.  Life's  enthusiasms  are  at  a  low  ebb  and  despond- 
ency waits  upon  him.  That  is  the  time  when  a  game. 


146  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

a  scrap-book,  or  something  to  read  is  of  the  greatest 
use  in  helping  him  to  live  up  to  the  sentiment  of  his 
favorite  song,  "  Pack  up  your  troubles  in  your  old 
kit  bag  and  smile,  smile,  smile."  A  good  story  may 
divert  his  thoughts  and  save  him  from  "hospitalitis." 
One  poor  chap,  who  lay  for  weeks  in  Camp  Zachary 
Taylor  Base  Hospital  with  heavy  weights  attached 
to  his  legs,  only  stopped  reading  long  enough  to  eat. 
"  You  picked  me  a  good  one,'*  he  said  again  and  again 
to  the  hbrarian.  "  As  long  as  I  am  reading  I  forget  the 
pain." 

Stories  are  sometimes  better  than  doctors.  During 
the  Civil  War,  a  visitor  at  a  military  hospital  in  Wash- 
ington heard  an  occupant  of  one  of  the  beds  laughing 
and  talking  about  President  Lincoln,  who  had  been 
there  a  short  time  before  and  had  gladdened  the 
wounded  with  some  of  his  stories.  The  soldier  seemed 
in  such  good  spirits  that  the  visitor  said:  "  You  must 
be  very  slightly  wounded."  "Yes,"  replied  the  brave 
fellow,  "very  slightly.  I  have  only  lost  one  leg  and  I 
should  be  glad  enough  to  lose  the  other,  if  I  could 
hear  some  more  of  Old  Abe's  stories." 

Hospital  library  service  in  the  United  States  grew 
out  of  the  action  of  a  few  camp  librarians  in  sending 
collections  of  books  to  the  hospitals  attached  to  the 
camps  where  they  were  stationed.  In  some  of  these 
hospitals  the  books  were  in  charge  of  a  chaplain,  a 
Y.M.C.A.  secretary,  or  a  Red  Cross  or  medical  officer; 
but  as  the  book  collections  were  made  up  from  gifts 
of  varying  merit  and  the  officials  had  many  other 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES    147 

time-absorbing  duties,  the  results  were  far  from  satis- 
factory. In  February,  1918,  it  was  decided  that  some 
systematic  hospital  library  service  should  be  estab- 
lished. Information  as  to  the  number  and  size  of  the 
hospitals  was  secured  from  the  Surgeon  General's 
OflSce  and  from  the  Navy  Department.  It  was  also 
necessary  to  learn  the  attitude  of  the  medical  officer 
in  command  and  of  the  Red  Cross  toward  library 
work.  Requests  were  therefore  sent  to  the  camp 
librarians  to  consult  with  the  medical  officer  concern- 
ing the  question  of  a  Kbrary  at  the  base  hospital,  and 
the  appointment  of  a  librarian.  After  personal  inter- 
views with  the  medical  officer  in  command  at  some 
of  the  general  hospitals,  consent  was  given  to  have 
library  service  introduced.  All  the  army  hospitals 
wanted  books,  but  not  all  wanted  librarians.  Some 
said  that  they  did  not  need  a  librarian,  as  the  chaplain 
had  charge  of  the  Kbrary.  Others  telegraphed : "  Please 
send  some  one  immediately."  After  having  seen  what 
a  competent  library  organizer  could  do,  the  medical 
officer  at  Williamsbridge  was  so  perturbed  at  the 
thought  of  being  left  without  a  librarian  that  he  wired 
to  Headquarters:  "  Competent  librarian  needed  and 
demanded." 

A  great  variety  of  books  was  required  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  wants  of  the  men  in  the  hospital  wards 
and  the  convalescents  in  the  Red  Cross  houses. 
Naturally  what  the  sick  man  reads  depends  upon  the 
individual.  If  he  is  an  educated  man,  accustomed  to 
reading,  he  wants  first  a  good  novel,  a  detective  story. 


148  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

a  tale  of  adventure,  or  something  amusing.  Rex 
Beach,  Zane  Grey,  and  O.  Henry  are  very  popular. 
After  a  few  days  he  asks  for  something  more  sub- 
stantial. Poetry,  attractively  written  history,  biog- 
raphy, and  travel,  and  books  on  the  war  circulate 
widely.  Patients  who  are  able  and  inclined  towards 
study  ask  for  algebras,  geometries,  spellers,  shorthand 
manuals,  books  on  business  methods,  law,  medicine, 
and  an  endless  variety  of  other  subjects.  If  there  are 
many  uneducated  men  in  the  camp  a  good  sprinkling 
of  primers  and  simple  readers  is  essential. 

Books  in  foreign  languages  are  often  needed.  A 
discharged  Russian  soldier  brought  to  a  librarian  a 
torn  and  battered  Russian  magazine.  "They  gave  it 
to  me  at  the  Grey  Nunnery,"  he  said,  "and  I  was  so 
glad  to  get  something  written  in  Russian  that  I  want 
to  leave  it  here  for  some  other  Russian  fellow."  A 
ward-master  in  the  Base  Hospital  at  Camp  Upton 
asked  a  rabbi  to  have  a  look  at  a  Jewish  patient  whom 
he  thought  rather  peculiar  —  possibly  out  of  his  head 
—  because  he  clung  so  tenaciously  to  an  old  news- 
paper. Upon  investigation,  the  rabbi  found  that  the 
boy  was  quite  bewildered,  for  he  could  neither  speak 
nor  read  English  and  for  ten  days  had  had  nothing 
to  read  but  an  old  Yiddish  paper.  It  turned  out  that 
he  was  a  student  and  was  nearly  beside  himself  for 
want  of  some  means  of  self-expression.  The  rabbi 
called  upon  the  camp  librarian,  who,  although  there 
was  but  Httle  Hebrew  and  Yiddish  on  the  shelves, 
was  able  to  provide  some  suitable  material  and  to  do 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES      149 

for  the  patient  what  the  doctors  had  failed  to  accom- 
plish. 

Various  methods  of  distributing  the  books  have 
been  tried.  In  some  hospitals  the  librarian  is  furnished 
with  a  vehicle  resembling  a  tea-wagon,  on  noiseless 
rubber  wheels;  this  she  rolls  into  the  wards,  stopping 
at  every  bed  and  allowing  each  patient  time  to  make 
a  selection  before  moving  on.  Where  these  book  trucks 
were  not  available,  shopping-bags  and  children's 
express-wagons  have  been  pressed  into  service. 

One  hospital  librarian  had  small  cards  printed, 
giving  the  library  hours  and  an  invitation  to  use  it, 
and  distributed  them  as  she  went  from  place  to  place 
in  the  camp  and  hospital. 

Many  of  the  librarians  decided  that  they  could 
determine  the  book  needs  of  the  patients  more  satis- 
factorily by  abandoning  the  practice  of  carrying  a 
selection  of  books  through  the  wards  in  favor  of  the 
plan  of  sitting  beside  each  bed  with  a  notebook  and 
talking  with  the  man  about  the  kind  of  book  he 
wanted.  At  first,  reported  one  librarian,  the  men  were 
uncommunicative  and  progress  was  slow;  gradually, 
however,  by  patience  and  tact,  she  accustomed  them 
to  the  idea  of  talking  freely  and  unreservedly  to  her 
about  books. 

"Now,  when  they  see  me  coming  with  notebook  in 
hand,"  she  continued,  "they  lean  back  on  their  pil- 
lows with  the  most  lordly  air  of  having  the  whole 
world  to  choose  from.  And  they  do  choose  from  the 
whole  world  of  books,  over  a  range  that  fairly  puts 


150  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

me  through  my  paces.  And  I  believe  they  are  coming 
to  enjoy  the  'book-chat'  as  much  as  they  enjoy  the 
books  themselves. 

"The  other  day  I  managed  to  get  admitted  to  a 
ward  which  had  been  closed  to  me  for  almost  a  week 
because  of  the  influenza  epidemic.  When  I  appeared 
in  the  doorway  the  men  in  the  nearer  end  of  the  ward 
gave  a  joint  sigh  of  relief  that  came  like  music  to  my 
ears.  Almost  in  perfect  chorus  they  exclaimed,  'Well, 
here  she  comes!  Here  comes  the  book  lady!'  Farther 
down  the  ward  one  lad  —  he  was  very  young  — 
greeted  me  with  real  tears  in  his  eyes.  'I've  been 
lying  here  for  days  wishing  you'd  come,'  he  said." 

"What  the  librarian  of  a  base  hospital  library  as- 
pires to  do  is  to  get  everybody  to  reading,"  says  Miss 
Miriam  Carey,  supervisor  of  hospitals  in  the  South- 
eastern District.  "In  order  to  know  how  to  do  this  a 
leisurely  survey  from  bed  to  bed  is  taken.  After  the 
soldiers  get  acquainted  with  the  librarian  and  adopt 
her  as  one  of  their  own  folks,  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
tell  her  what  they  want  to  read  —  far  from  it.  And 
after  one  of  these  bedside  visits  she  can  tell  them 
what  they  want  to  read  if  they  are  backward  about 
it.  To  satisfy  the  wants  of  the  sick  soldiers  it  is  neces- 
sary not  only  to  take  the  book  to  the  man,  but  to  get 
acquainted  with  him.  After  this  has  been  done  the 
librarian  and  her  orderly  have  the  supremest  satisfac- 
tion that  can  come  to  such  workers,  namely,  that  of 
seeing  every  man  in  the  ward  with  a  book  or  scrap- 
book  or  magazine  in  his  hand." 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES    151 

A  hospital  librarian  at  Fort  Oglethorpe  reported 
that  every  patient  who  was  able  to  read,  but  could 
not  get  to  the  Red  Cross  House,  was  asked  what  sort 
of  reading  matter  he  would  like.  His  name,  ward,  and 
bed  number  were  put  down  in  a  notebook,  with  a 
record  of  the  kind  of  reading  he  wanted.  The  same 
afternoon  the  ward-masters  sent  some  one  for  the 
books,  and  distributed  them  upon  their  arrival.  One 
disadvantage  of  this  system  was  that  the  men  did 
not  have  the  satisfaction  of  having  before  them  a 
variety  of  books  from  which  to  make  a  selection.  It 
also  wasted  a  good  deal  of  time;  sometimes  the  ward- 
masters  forgot  to  send  for  the  books,  and  unless  they 
happened  to  take  a  personal  interest  in  the  matter, 
the  right  book  did  not  always  reach  the  right  man. 
Owing  to  the  great  distance  between  the  Red  Cross 
House  and  many  of  the  wards,  it  was  impossible  for 
the  boy  detailed  for  library  duty  to  carry  enough 
books  to  go  round.  Later  it  was  found  expedient  to 
load  the  library  wagon  in  the  morning  and  have  the 
driver,  who  was  a  detailed  man,  go  through  the  wards 
with  the  librarian,  carrying  armloads  of  books  from 
the  wagon.  In  this  way  twice  the  number  of  volumes 
could  be  circulated  and  the  men  got  what  they  asked 
for.  As  one  man  said,  "It's  great  to  see  the  books  and 
magazines  you  want,  and  not  to  have  to  think  what 
you  want,  and  then  ask  for  it.'* 

"My  first  Sunday  in  camp  was  spent  at  the  Base 
Hospital,"  wrote  the  librarian  at  Camp  Upton.  "We 
received  from  Major  Whitham  permission  to  dis- 


152  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

tribute  books  in  the  wards  and  in  the  barracks  of  the 
men  in  the  hospital  service.  This  involved  the  carry- 
ing of  the  books  for  a  distance  of  about  three  blocks, 
over  lumber  piles  and  rough  ground.  We  made  a 
stretcher-box  by  nailing  two  long  handle  pieces  to 
the  sides  of  a  packing  box.  On  entering  a  ward  we 
were  generally  mistaken  for  ambulance  men  with  a 
new  'case.'  But  when  the  ward-master  would  call  out 
that  we  had  books  free  for  the  use  of  all  who  wished 
them,  there  followed  a  general  stampede  of  bathrobed 
men  in  our  direction.  Our  wares  proved  popular,  as 
the  men  were  anxious  for  something  to  read.  We 
expect  to  establish  an  exchange  station  at  the  post 
hospital  when  completed." 

Mrs.  Alice  Hegan  Rice,  who  was  instrumental  in 
establishing  hospital  library  service  at  Camp  Zachary 
Taylor,  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  her  experi- 
ences there.  The  hospital  was  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
the  camp  library;  there  was  no  provision  in  any  of 
the  wards  for  books,  and  no  means  of  moving  them 
from  one  ward  to  another.  To  remedy  this  condition 
of  affairs  a  three-foot  bookshelf  was  built  in  each  of 
the  fifty-eight  wards  of  the  hospital,  the  camp  library 
having  agreed  to  give  ten  volumes  for  each  shelf.  A 
food  cart,  borrowed  from  the  officers'  niess,  was  used 
for  the  distribution  of  the  books.  But  as  only  such 
patients  as  were  up  and  about  had  access  to  the 
books  on  the  shelves,  it  became  necessary  to  establish 
a  circulating  library  of  a  unique  kind.  Baskets  were 
filled  with  books  arranged  with  titles  up,  and  were 


xn 

K      o 

Q        5= 


H     .2 


>     15 

'A     « 
Q      « 


i 


E4 

< 

X 


1 


E-t 

H 

< 

K 

o 
o 

n 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES    153 

taken  from  ward  to  ward  and  from  bed  to  bed.  "I 
wish  you  could  have  seen  the  eagerness  with  which 
they  were  received,"  wrote  Mrs.  Rice,  in  describing 
one  of  these  trips  through  the  hospital.  "When  we 
left,  only  two  books  remained  on  the  table,  and  the 
two  wards  presented  a  picture  that  would  have 
amused  you.  Every  soldier  who  was  able  to  sit  up 
was  absorbed  in  his  particular  volume." 

Some  of  the  boys  thought  that  the  books  were 
being  displayed  for  sale  and  offered  to  pay  for  them, 
for  here,  as  in  the  camp  libraries,  the  idea  of  free 
library  service  was  a  novelty  to  many. 

At  first  many  of  the  patients  viewed  the  proffered 
books  with  suspicion  and  said,  "No,  I  ain't  any  hand 
for  reading."  Others  would  be  sitting  up  in  bed  wait- 
ing for  the  arrival  of  some  books.  A  man  who  said 
condescendingly  to  the  librarian  on  her  first  visit, 
"Oh,  I  jest  as  soon  read  it  fer  ye  as  not,"  boasted 
later  that  he  had  read  more  books  in  the  hospital 
than  he  had  ever  read  in  his  whole  life  before:  while 
waiting  to  get  well  he  had  mastered  six  volumes.  One 
husky  Virginian  asked  the  librarian  whether  she  had 
ever  heard  of  a  book  called  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  An 
Italian  in  the  same  ward  asked  for  Dante's  "Inferno" 
and  for  "Romola." 

One  Italian  patient  at  Camp  Zachary  Taylor  Hos- 
pital knew  Mrs.  Rice  simply  as  a  Red  Cross  worker. 
When  he  first  learned  that  she  was  an  author, 
he  came  up  to  her  and  said,  "I  hear  you  write  a 
book." 


154  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"Yes,  Tony,  I  have  written  some  books.  What 
about  them?" 

"Will  you  please  tell  me,  are  they  fit  to  send  to  a 
young  lady?" 

"Well,  I  hope  so,"  she  replied.  The  poor  boy  was 
trying  to  find  something  American  which  would  in- 
terest his  sweetheart. 

A  librarian  at  a  Red  Cross  House  paid  a  call  at  the 
bedside  of  a  man  who  was  perfectly  certain  that  he 
did  not  want  to  read.  He  was  peevish  and  almost 
contemptuous,  but  having  discovered  in  him  a  latent 
sense  of  humor  she  afterwards  sent  him  a  "Penrod," 
with  the  message  that  if  he  had  ever  been  a  boy  she 
was  sure  he  would  enjoy  the  book.  The  next  time  she 
visited  this  ward  the  man  was  all  smiles.  Never  had 
he  enjoyed  a  book  as  he  had  that  one  —  greatest 
thing  he  had  ever  read,  he  said  as  he  asked  her  to 
send  him  another. 

A  soldier  strolled  up  to  an  absorbed  group  around 
the  book- truck  in  a  ward  of  a  military  hospital. 
*'Wish  I  could  get  interested  in  a  book,  but  I  can't, 
never  could."  Still  he  lingered.  Finally  he  snatched  a 
book  on  checkers.  "Say,  Miss  Librarian,  can  I  take 
this?  If  I  could  beat  my  dad  one  game  of  checkers 
when  I  get  home,  I  'd  feel  repaid  for  these  weeks  in 
the  hospital." 

Trips  through  the  wards  afford  both  comedy  and 
tragedy.  Probably  most  hospital  library  workers  in 
this  country  would  echo  the  sentiments  of  an  Ameri- 
can woman,  working  for  the  Red  Cross  at  a  hospital 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES    155 

center  in  France,  who  wrote  home  that  it  was  "easy" 
to  be  a  good  hospital  hut  worker,  as  one  needed  only 
to  possess  the  meekness  of  Moses,  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon,  the  charity  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  the 
strength  of  Samson,  the  longevity  of  Methuselah,  the 
democracy  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  and  the  diplo- 
macy of  Machiavelli. 

"You  won't  have  any  trouble  disposing  of  your 
books,"  said  a  man  to  Miss  Ola  M.  Wyeth  at  the 
beginning  of  her  work  at  the  Camp  Wadsworth  Hos- 
pital. "When  I  was  there  we  were  tickled  to  death 
to  get  a  magazine  six  months  old." 

On  one  trip  through  the  wards,  she  had  only  two 
books  left.  A  man  picked  them  up  and  handed  them 
back.  "I  don't  like  books  written  by  women,"  said  he. 

"But  F.  Marion  Crawford  is  not  a  woman." 

"Well,  if  she  is  n't  a  woman,  what  is  she?" 

On  being  assured  of  the  author's  sex,  he  took  the 
book  and  settled  back  to  enjoy  it. 

One  day  a  patient  said  to  her,  "Give  me  a  real  love 
story."  All  the  men  laughed,  but  when  the  librarian 
went  to  their  bedsides  most  of  them  said,  "I  want 
one  like  that  other  fellow  asked  for." 

Upon  another  occasion  a  man  declined  a  book.  The 
librarian  went  on  to  the  next  bed.  "What  is  this  one 
about?"  the  occupant  asked.  It  happened  to  be 
Marjorie  Benton  Cooke's  "Bambi." 

"Oh,"  said  the  librarian  offhand,  "it's  about  a  girl 
who  married  a  man  without  his  having  anything  to 
say  about  it." 


156  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"That  will  do.  That's  my  case  exactly.  I  will 
take  it." 

Then  the  man  who  had  declined  to  have  a  book 
called  out,  "Let  me  read  it  first,"  and  the  librarian 
left  them  wrangling  good-naturedly  over  the  volume. 
It  is  a  very  common  occurrence  for  a  man  to  refuse 
a  book  until  he  sees  his  neighbor  take  one;  that  ex- 
cites his  interest  and  he  demands  one  for  himself. 

The  men  who  prefer  serious  reading  are  often  of  an 
unusual  type.  Miss  Wyeth  reports  an  enjoyable  talk 
on  literary  matters  with  a  remarkably  well-informed 
young  man  who  impressed  her  so  favorably  that  she 
made  inquiries  as  to  his  identity.  To  her  surprise  she 
found  that  he  was  a  former  prize-fighter. 

"You  Ve  no  idea  how  good  it  is  to  see  some  one  not 
in  uniform,"  said  one  patient  to  the  hospital  librarian 
at  Camp  Cody.  "I  like  to  see  you  in  that  pink  dress," 
said  a  Syrian  patient  to  this  same  librarian,  who 
reported  these  comments  when  writing  to  Headquar- 
ters to  inquire  whether  she  need  wear  her  uniform 
during  the  evenings. 

Many  men  insist  upon  taking  a  book  with  them  to 
the  operating-room.  Just  why  is  not  always  clear. 
Perhaps  the  man  has  become  interested  in  a  story 
and  is  afraid  that  he  won't  find  it  when  he  comes  out 
of  the  anaesthetic.  Perhaps  he  just  wants  to  hold 
something  familiar  in  his  hand. 

A  man  who  was  being  returned  to  his  ward  from 
the  operating-room  came  out  of  the  ether  momenta- 
rily as  the  librarian's  book- wagon  passed  his  stretcher. 


„    o 


!^    •- 


ri3 
>» 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES     157 

"Hello!"  he  called  feebly,  "did  you  bring  me  that 
book?  "  In  a  moment  he  was  asleep  again  and  did  not 
wake  for  hours.  What  he  had  said  was  merely  an 
utterance  of  the  sub-conscious  mind,  and  he  had  no 
memory  of  it  when  he  regained  consciousness. 

The  librarian  at  one  of  the  naval  hospitals  made  a 
point  of  being  on  hand  by  special  request  when  boys 
came  out  of  the  ether  after  an  operation.  She  said 
that  she  did  not  know  whether  this  was  library  work 
or  not,  but  the  look  of  joy  on  their  faces  when  they 
found  that  she  had  kept  her  promise  and  was  "right 
there"  was  worth  the  few  minutes  it  took  to  run  over 
upon  a  telephone  call  from  the  head  nurse. 

Another  librarian,  when  forbidden  to  take  books 
into  any  of  the  wards  on  account  of  the  influenza 
epidemic,  found  that  she  could  cheer  up  some  of  the 
boys  by  playing  dominoes,  double  solitaire,  and 
cribbage. 

The  librarian  at  General  Hospital  number  3,  Lake- 
wood,  New  Jersey,  says  that  there  were  frequent  op- 
portunities for  interesting  the  men  in  books  through 
reading  aloud  to  them. 

One  man  with  bandaged  eyes  lay  and  chuckled 
over  readings  from  Richard  Harding  Davis — forget- 
ful for  a  while  of  the  pain  and  loneliness  which  he 
confessed  "nagged  him  all  the  time  when  he  was 
alone."  Three  men,  feeling  very  low  in  their  minds 
and  sore  in  their  throats  after  tonsil  operations, 
handed  out  Mrs.  Helen  R.  Martin's  "Barnabetta," 
while  the  one  with  the  most  power  of  speech  explained 


158  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

that  he  had  started  it  one  night  and  thought  it  was 
"awful  funny,"  and  wondered  whether  the  librarian 
had  time  to  read  a  chapter  or  two.  He  was  sure  the 
other  fellows  would  like  it,  and  besides  they  "were 
so  sick  of  looking  at  one  another." 

A  negro  boy  from  South  Carolina,  who  "suttenly 
was  lonesome,"  asked  the  librarian,  "Does  you  know 
that  book  called  '  Pilgrim's  Progress '  ?  " 

"Yes,"  she  said;  "I  have  n't  read  it  for  a  long  time. 
I'd  like  to  go  back  to  it." 

"Well,  I  suttenly  would  appreciate  hearin'  you  read 
it,"  he  said;  adding  as  they  all  do,  "if  you  has  time." 

So  they  saw  Christian  safely  through  the  Slough 
of  Despond  that  afternoon.  Then  the  book  was  left 
on  the  man's  table,  as  he  said  his  wife  was  coming  the 
next  day  and  she  would  like  to  read  some  to  him. 
After  that  the  patient  and  the  librarian  had  many 
bouts  with  Appolyon  and  others,  much  to  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  ward  surgeon,  who  vowed:  "You  spoil 
him.  That  boy  plays  sick  every  time  he  sees  you  com- 
ing with  that  book." 

The  wounded  men  like  to  feel  independent.  "There 
are  two  boys  in  wheel-chairs,"  wrote  a  librarian;  "one 
with  both  legs  gone,  the  other  with  but  one,  who 
spend  most  of  the  day  beside  the  books,  which  are  so 
arranged  that  they  can  reach  them  without  keeping 
others  away.  One  of  them  said  to  me  the  other  day, 
*I  never  knew  until  now  what  books  could  mean  in  a 
man's  life.  I  should  have  lost  my  mind  if  I  could  not 
have  had  the  use  of  these  books.'" 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES     159 

One  lad  called  his  wheel-chair  his  "Ford,"  and  de- 
clined the  librarian's  assistance,  assuring  her  that  his 
machine  was  equipped  with  a  self-starter. 

A  letter  from  Miss  Grace  Shellenberger,  the  hos- 
pital librarian  at  Fort  Des  Moines,  to  the  Library- 
War  Service,  telling  of  conditions  there  when  the 
influenza  epidemic  created  new  complications,  is 
typical  in  its  description  of  the  attitude  of  the  men 
towards  the  library.  When  the  orderly  came  to  sweep 
and  dust  at  6.45  a.m.,  she  says,  he  usually  found  thirty 
or  more  men  on  hand  waiting  to  get  in.  As  there  was 
not  room  for  all,  the  boy  on  crutches  or  the  one  in  a 
wheel-chair  was  given  the  preference.  Sometimes  the 
men  on  crutches  took  the  precaution  of  telephoning 
in  order  to  be  sure  of  having  a  place  to  rest  after 
making  the  effort  to  get  to  the  library.  When  they 
arrived  they  were  frequently  so  tired  that  they  would 
fall  asleep  with  their  heads  on  the  reading-table.  After 
a  few  minutes  they  would  wake  up  and  begin  to  read. 

Occasionally  the  men  even  resorted  to  strategy  to 
get  in.  If  one  man  was  thought  to  be  getting  more 
than  his  share  of  library  comfort,  a  message  would 
come  that  he  was  wanted  at  the  'phone,  or  to  sign 
the  pay-roll  —  the  bearer  of  the  message  promptly 
preempting  the  vacant  chair.  But  one  evening  when 
the  librarian  heard  three  men  planning  to  put  in  the 
fire  call  to  clear  out  the  library,  she  thought  it  was 
time  to  remonstrate.  "Well,  Missus,"  was  the  de- 
fense, "we  have  n't  been  in  there  at  all,  and  it  looks 
like  the  nicest  place  on  the  Post."  "Regulations  were 


160  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

stretched,"  says  Miss  Shellenberger,  "and  those  boys 
from  overseas  found  a  seat  on  the  floor." 

On  the  "return"  card  of  a  book  given  to  the  Chel- 
sea Naval  Hospital  by  the  Massachusetts  Library 
Commission  was  found  this  message: 

Dear  Friends: 

We  appreciate  ever  so  much  what  has  been  done 
for  us.  Just  send  more  books  and  still  more  books. 

One  of  the  Boys 

A  sailor  who  was  leaving  the  hospital  contributed 
to  the  library  a  volume  of  the  American  Statesman 
Series  which  he  had  bought  for  himself  while  he  was 
there.  He  said  he  had  enjoyed  it  so  much  that  he 
wanted  to  leave  it "  for  another  poor  Jackie."  He  had 
joined  the  Navy  some  years  ago,  and  had  been  in 
seventeen  hospitals  in  different  parts  of  the  world. 
He  was  very  fond  of  good  books,  he  said,  and  would 
rather  read  than  do  anything  else  by  way  of  recrea- 
tion. He  wished  "they"  would  put  a  Ubrary  in  every 
U.S.  naval  hospital.  He  also  spoke  with  much  appre- 
ciation of  the  books  on  the  troopships. 

The  librarian  at  the  Camp  Dix  Base  Hospital  re- 
lates an  incident  of  a  private  who  had  been  through 
some  very  thrilling  experiences  when  the  Ticonderoga 
was  torpedoed  by  a  German  submarine.  He  had  sup- 
posed, along  with  the  rest  of  the  worid,  that  he  and 
the  twenty-one  other  lads  who  were  with  him  in  the 
one  lifeboat  which  escaped  were  the  sole  survivors. 


AMERICAN  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES    161 

until  one  day  a  copy  of  the  New  York  Times  was 
handed  him,  containing  the  news  that  two  Heutenants 
from  the  ill-fated  ship  had  just  landed  in  New  York; 
it  seemed  they  had  been  rescued  by  the  German  U- 
boat  and  kept  in  her  hold  until  the  surrender  of  the 
Grand  Fleet,  two  months  later. 

Not  content  with  shooting  away  the  deck  guns  and 
gunners  of  the  Ticonderoga,  which  had  lost  her  convoy, 
the  Germans  had  shell-fired  her  for  more  than  two 
hours  in  order  to  wound  as  many  as  possible,  before 
firing  the  fatal  torpedo.  They  had  then  shot  away  all 
the  lifeboats  but  one.  This  they  tied  to  their  subma- 
rine, and  proceeded  to  submerge  the  latter.  Just  as  the 
lifeboat  was  on  the  point  of  being  dragged  under,  the 
rope  snapped.  The  twenty-two  lads  escaped,  to  drift 
for  four  days  on  the  open  sea,  with  a  spoonful  of  water 
a  day  as  ration,  till  picked  up  by  a  British  transport 
and  returned  to  New  York. 

"You  would  have  thought  Private  H would 

never  wish  to  hear  of  the  sea  again,"  says  the  Hbra- 
rian,  "but  American  youth  is  resilient.  He  clipped 
carefully  the  Times  narrative  of  his  lieutenant's 
rescue  from  a  watery  grave,  and  then  with  complete 
sang-froid  asked  for  a  good  sea  story.  From  several 
which  I  showed  him  on  the  book-wagon  he  chose 
*  Captains  Courageous*  and  found  it  entirely  satis- 
fying." 


CHAPTER  IX 
BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  AND  WOUNDED 

A  MILITARY  hospital  is  ordinarily  divided  into  sur- 
gical, medical,  and  psychiatric  wards.  In  the  last 
named  are  the  shell-shock  patients,  some  of  whom  are 
deaf,  some  have  lost  the  power  of  speech,  and  others 
cannot  walk.  The  percentage  of  recoveries  is  large, 
especially  among  the  deaf  and  the  speechless;  those 
whose  nerves  of  locomotion  are  affected  have  to  re- 
leam  the  art  of  walking.  In  dealing  with  these  diffi- 
cult cases,  medical  officers  are  the  first  to  recognize 
the  therapeutic  value  of  interesting  books  and  pic- 
tures. Usually  these  mentally  affected  soldiers  like 
books  with  which  they  were  familiar  before  the  war. 
Sometimes  a  book  of  travel  will  recall  pleasant  days. 
Thus  a  young  man  who  said  he  liked  England  was 
made  happy  by  having  "The  Spell  of  England"  put 
into  his  hands.  A  wild-looking  boy  chose  "Vaga- 
bonding down  the  Andes";  his  shocked  brain  recalled 
a  voyage  to  South  America.  Some  of  the  seriously 
affected  can  be  reached  only  through  bright  picture- 
books.  A  colored  boy  who  said  there  was  nothing  the 
matter  with  him,  but  that  he  was  "jest  tyahed  of 
livin',"  kept  the  same  picture-book  for  days,  turning 
the  leaves  over  and  over,  forgetting  his  lost  leg  and 
his  bewildered  state  of  mind. 
One  hospital  librarian  writes  of  meeting  two  pa- 


o 

K-l 

3 

< 

« 

Q 

EO 

>^ 

C) 

K 

'' 

W 

■? 

> 

ca 

H 

5: 

15 

o 

•< 

U 

fi!i* 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  163 

tients  pacing  up  and  down  the  veranda  of  a  psychi- 
atric ward.  In  answer  to  an  offer  of  cowboy  yams, 
detective  stories,  and  recent  fiction,  one  of  the  men 
said,  "If  I  could  sit  down  and  read  a  book  I'd  be 
glad,"  and  resumed  his  pacing.  Later  she  met  these 
same  men  again  and  persuaded  one  of  them  to  take 
a  copy  of  "Much  Ado  About  Nothing,"  assuring 
him  that  he  would  not  have  to  concentrate  on  it  as 
he  was  already  familiar  with  it.  He  took  the  book 
and  signed  for  it  with  a  trembling  hand.  The  man 
who  had  said  that  he  knew  he  could  never  read  again, 
that  the  last  thing  he  had  read  was  a  magazine  article 
on  trench  warfare,  was,  however,  willing  to  try 
Empey's  "Over  the  Top."  The  librarian  took  a  copy 
of  the  book  to  the  ward-master,  who  promised  to 
look  it  over  and  give  it  to  the  man  if  he  thought  it 
would  not  excite  him  too  much  by  recalling  his  own 
trench  experiences. 

A  hospital  librarian  going  through  a  psychiatric 
ward  one  day  noticed  a  new  patient  in  a  pitiable 
state  from  a  self-inflicted  wound,  with  a  guard  seated 
at  the  bedside.  The  guard,  when  asked  whether  he  did 
not  want  a  book  or  a  magazine,  said  that  he  could  not 
read.  The  Hbrarian  offered  to  teach  him.  She  brought 
him  a  primer,  and  was  beginning  the  first  lesson  when 
the  patient  opened  his  eyes  and  said  to  her,  "Leave 
him  to  me.  I  '11  help  him."  The  opportunity  to  be  of 
assistance  to  another  was  thus  the  means  of  re- 
awakening the  wounded  man's  interest  in  life.  It 
was  very  significant  that  these  two  men  who  needed 


164  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

each  other  should  meet  in  this  way  in  a  military 
hospital.  The  illiterate  guard  became  very  much  at- 
tached to  his  charge  whom   he  called  "Teacher." 
When  the  librarian  saw  him  some  time  later  and 
inquired  as  to  the  progress  he  was  making,  the  answer 
was  not  very  cheerful.  "I'm  not  getting  on  very  well, 
ma'am.  Teacher  has  been  moved  to  another  ward." 
A  sadly  depressed  patient  lay  on  his  bed  with  his 
eyes  turned  to  the  wall.  For  weeks  no  one  had  been 
able  to  shake  him  from  his  lethargy.  At  last  the  hos- 
pital librarian  got  a  chance  to  say  a  word  to  him. 
"Can't  I  get  you  something  to  read.'*" 
"No,  —  could  n't  remember  anything   overnight 
even  if  I  did  read." 

"Well,  let's  try  something  that  need  n't  keep.  Did 
you  ever  read  poetry?" 

"Yes,  I  used  to  like  Klipling." 
"You  know  his  *Road  to  Mandalay'?" 
"Oh,  yes,  and  his  *Gunga  Din.'  I  might  try  them." 
From  then  on  he  was  a  changed  man.  He  began  to 
take  an  interest  not  only  in  reading,  but  in  his  sur- 
roundings, and  in  life  itself. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  neurologist,  books,  like 
drugs,  are  classified  into  stimulants  and  depressants. 
As  a  rule,  cheerful  endings  are  desirable  in  fiction  for 
the  wounded.  A  British  nurse  tells  of  a  serial  story 
which  depressed  one  of  her  patients  for  a  whole  day 
because  the  heroine  died.  "I  wish,  Sister,  I  had  never 
read  it!"  he  exclaimed.  "I  got  to  like  that  girl,  and  if 
I  could  have  found  one  something  the  same  when  I 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  165 

got  out  and  about  again,  I  should  have  married  her  — 
if  she  would  have  had  me."  On  the  other  hand,  a 
novel  with  a  happy  ending  is  not  necessarily  a  stimu- 
lant to  the  depressed  patient,  who  may  be  tempted 
to  contrast  his  own  wretched  state  with  that  of  the 
happy  hero.  Nor  is  every  tragedy  a  depressant.  A 
serious  book  may  prove  to  be  better  reading  for  a 
nervous  patient  than  something  in  a  lighter  vein  — 
he  may  get  new  courage  and  a  firm  resolve  to  be  mas- 
ter of  his  fate  by  reading  of  another's  struggle  against 
adverse  circumstances. 

The  scrap-books  made  all  over  the  country  for  the 
sick  and  wounded  soldiers  and  sent  out  from  A.L.A. 
Headquarters  have  proved  invaluable.  Five  thousand 
hempboard  books  furnished  by  the  Chicago  Daily 
News  were  filled  by  Chicago  people  with  short  stories, 
pictures,  anecdotes,  and  bits  of  humor  clipped  from 
periodicals.  The  librarian  at  Camp  MacArthur  wrote 
in  to  say  that  he  took  fifty  of  these  over  to  the  base 
hospital  and  distributed  them  personally.  He  also 
carried  to  the  isolation  ward  some  fifty  popular 
novels  which  were  too  worn  out  to  circulate  any 
longer.  The  men  literally  flocked  around  the  table 
where  the  books  were  placed,  making  such  remarks  as 
"This  is  my  book,"  or,  "There  *s  a  bully  good  book," 
or,  "I  want  you  to  know  that  we  appreciate  these 
books."  Such  volumes  are,  of  course,  destroyed  when 
that  particular  ward  is  through  with  them,  but  as  the 
librarian  says,  "Their  last  service  is  a  good  one.  These 
are  the  things  that  give  one  the  energy  to  work  ten  or 


166  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

twelve  hours  a  day  seven  days  in  the  week  and  make 
him  wish  there  were  two  of  him  instead  of  one." 

In  the  hospitals,  as  in  the  camps,  the  sudden  cessa- 
tion of  the  war  greatly  increased  the  demand  for  books 
on  technical  and  vocational  subjects.  One  hospital 
librarian  who  distributed  small  leaflets  calling  atten- 
tion to  some  of  the  trades  and  occupations  on  which 
books  were  available,  describes  the  results  of  his 
experiment  as  follows: 

"I  decided  to  give  out  the  lists,  up  and  down  each 
side  of  a  ward,  in  advance  of  my  library  truck  of 
books  and  magazines,  thinking  that  thus  each  lad 
would  have  a  chance  to  read  and  digest  the  leaflet 
before  the  books  followed.  Almost  before  I  could  get 
back  to  my  truck  an  avalanche  of  questions  from 
limping  young  veterans  was  upon  me  .  .  .  *  Where  do 
we  get  these  books  it  tells  about  here?  ...  I  want 
something  about  motor  trucks  ...  I  was  a  book- 
keeper before;  I  want  to  leam  something  different 
now.'  The  eager  finger  of  a  Portland  shipyard  worker 
pointed  to  the  word  *  Shipbuilding.'  In  fact,  eager 
fingers  pointed  to  every  concrete  item  on  that  list 
from  'Automobiles'  to  'Toolmaking.'  Before  I  left 
that  first  ward,  I  had  been  consulted  on  every  possible 
trade  from  moving-picture  photography  to  mechan- 
ical dentistry.  I  gave  out  every  technical  book  on  the 
book-wagon,  took  down  requests  for  a  dozen  more, 
and  made  up  my  mind  that  the  A.L.A.  had  started 
something  that  it  would  have  to  see  through  if  it 
took  every  dollar  in  the  U.S.  Treasury  —  also  that 


CO 

Q 

« 

Q 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  167 

every  public  library  from  Podunk  to  Wahoola  will 
have  to  wake  up  to  the  demands  of  New  America 
when  these  boys  come  home." 

HOSPITAL  LIBRARY   SERVICE  IN  FRANCE 

Prior  to  the  organization  of  hospital  Ubrary  service 
in  France,  the  need  of  books  and  magazines  in  the 
hospitals  was  acute.  Here  is  an  extract  from  a  letter 
written  home  by  a  stenographer  in  an  American  Red 
Cross  hospital: 

"Publications  of  all  sorts  are  almost  impossible  to 
secure,  as  I  have  foimd  to  my  sorrow  in  trying  to  get 
reading  matter  for  the  boys,  even  sending  to  Paris 
last  week  by  a  Red  Cross  worker  who  was  going  up 
on  business.  Out  of  a  list  of  fifty-odd  titles  of  books 
(not  new,  but  standard  or  popular)  and  current  maga- 
zines I  drew  five  of  the  less  desirable  volumes  and  two 
September  American  magazines  —  the  latter  a  great 
find,  however,  as  one  was  the  Atlantic,  which  I  would 
love  to  read  myself,  but  how  could  I  have  the  heart 
to  when  there  is  a  poor  man,  older  than  some  of  the 
boys  and  at  present  very  helpless  except  as  to  head 
and  hands,  scornful  of  such  stuff  as  found  its  way  to 
our  ward,  wanting  something  *  really  worth  while  to 
work  his  mental  jaws  on,*  whose  himgry  eyes  had 
followed  me  from  his  chair  by  the  roadside  whenever 
I  passed  that  way  ever  since  the  day  I  first  talked 
with  him  and  promised  to  try  to  get  him  something 
he  would  like.  Found  him  yesterday,  in  bed,  but 
happy,  and  I  think  he  had  read  every  word  from 


168  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

cover  to  cover.  Said  he  had  not  known  it  before  and 
thought  it  was  the  best  magazine  he  had  ever  read. 
To  be  sure,  Godey^s  Ladies'  Book  might  have  struck 
him  the  same  way  under  similar  circumstances,  but 
naturally  I  was  glad  I  found  something  which  would 
interest  him  and  help  the  days  pass  a  little  less 
monotonously." 

"We  inquired  about  reading  material  'over  there,' " 
wrote  the  hospital  librarian  at  Fort  Des  Moines. 
"The  men  who  came  back  in  August  reported  a  great 
need.  A  captain  told  us  that  they  had  one  small  shelf 
in  the  hospital,  and  the  patients  read  the  books  over 
and  over.  They  heard  of  a  circulating  library  of  Eng- 
lish books  in  the  village,  and  four  officers  sent  an 
orderly  for  books.  They  paid  five  francs  for  the  privi- 
lege of  borrowing  a  book  a  week.  The  captain  said 
they  did  n't  last  long,  either:  'I  read  one  in  the  after- 
noon, one  in  the  evening,  one  the  next  morning,  and 
the  supply  was  exhausted.' " 

A  Red  Cross  nurse  who  sent  for  some  books  for  her 
ward  told  of  a  fine  young  fellow,  so  injured  that  he 
had  to  lie  on  his  stomach,  who  showed  her  his  recrea- 
tion, all  that  he  had  had  for  six  weeks:  it  was  a  leaf 
from  the  advertising  section  of  a  popular  magazine. 
He  could  tell  her  the  number  of  words  on  each  page 
and  on  both,  then  the  number  of  letters,  the  number 
of  i's,  w's,  and  so  on.  He  was  more  than  delighted 
when  she  gave  him  a  book  to  read  in  its  place. 

The  work  of  the  official  visitor  of  American  sick 
and  wounded  in  French  hospitals  is  thus  described 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  169 

by  Burton  E.  Stevenson,  European  representative  of 
the  A.L.A.  Library  War  Service:  "There  are  many 
of  our  boys  who  are  down  with  contagious  diseases; 
well  enough  to  read,  but  making  slow  recoveries,  and 
in  the  midst  of  people  who  know  little  or  no  English. 
One  poor  fellow  (and  I  suppose  others)  is  in  a  sort  of 
glass  cage,  incomunicado !  Well,  it  is  these  men  that 
these  books  are  for.  The  librarian  delivers  them,  ex- 
changes them,  where  the  disease  does  not  prohibit 
this,  and  looks  after  them  generally.  I  have  told  her 
to  let  me  know,  and  I  will  see  that  she  does  not  lack 
for  books." 

In  the  fall  of  1918,  a  thorough  investigation  of  the 
needs  of  the  various  hospitals  in  France  was  un- 
dertaken by  an  A.L.A.  representative.  Miss  Mary 
Frances  Isom,  and  libraries  were  established  at  many 
of  the  large  hospital  centers. 

At  Mesves,  which  Miss  Isom  visited  in  late  No- 
vember, there  were  twelve  base  hospitals  in  active 
operation,  and  a  huge  convalescent  camp.  In  all,  in- 
cluding the  personnel,  there  was  a  population  of  over 
26,000.  The  whole  encampment  was  a  sea  of  yellow, 
clinging  mud.  The  wards  were  of  concrete,  and  were 
often  damp  and  cold.  Until  about  the  first  of  Novem- 
ber there  had  been  no  amusements  of  any  kind  for 
the  convalescents  except  the  little  wine-rooms  in  the 
neighboring  villages.  The  reaction  following  the 
Armistice  had  caused  a  relaxation  in  discipline  and  a 
drop  in  the  morale.  "The  idleness  was  tragic,"  says 
Miss  Isom.  "Many  a  boy  said  to  me, '  This  is  the  hard- 


170  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

est  part  of  the  war  —  this  waiting.'  I  never  dreamed 
that  there  could  be  so  many  homesick  unhappy  boys 
in  the  world.  From  the  terribly  maimed  and  mutilated 
bed  patient  to  the  *  Class  A  *  man  in  the  convalescent 
camp,  every  one  wanted  to  go  home  —  and  to  have 
something  to  do.  I  asked  a  group  of  men  sitting  about 
the  stove  one  day  if  they  would  like  books.  'Books!* 
they  shouted  —  'Does  a  fish  like  water?* 

"The  first  week  at  Mesves  was  a  diflBcult  one,  in- 
deed, and  I  have  acquired  fresh  sympathy  with  the 
traveling  salesman,  the  book-agent,  and  the  social 
reformer.  The  libraries,  to  give  the  best  service,  must 
be  placed  in  the  Red  Cross  huts,  and  to  persuade  the 
directrices  that  an  apparent  addition  to  their  mani- 
fold cares  would  really  give  relief,  required  some 
diplomacy.'* 

Only  a  small  part  of  the  books  which  had  been  sent 
down  in  the  early  fall  could  be  accounted  for,  and 
these  were  found  under  canteen  counters  and  in  ward 
storerooms  —  not  in  the  hands  of  the  patients. 

As  soon  as  books  arrived  from  Paris,  they  were 
assigned  to  the  different  hospitals,  according  to  the 
number  of  patients  in  each.  Wherever  possible,  they 
were  placed  in  a  little  room  behind  the  stage  of  the 
hut  and  a  rivalry  promptly  developed  as  to  which  hut 
should  have  the  most  attractive  library.  In  one  hos- 
pital a  library  was  already  in  operation  in  the  receiv- 
ing ward,  imder  the  supervision  of  the  chaplain.  In 
several  instances  the  only  arrangement  possible  was 
to  place  the  books  in  the  canteen  and  serve  the  men 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  171 

over  the  counter.  One  library  was  temporarily  placed 
in  the  linen-room  of  one  of  the  wards,  and  Miss  Isom 
says  that  she  remembers  sitting  for  an  hour  on  a  pile 
of  pajamas,  giving  out  books  to  a  long  line  of  patient 
"buddies"  that  extended  down  the  ward  and  never 
got  any  shorter.  At  the  convalescent  camp  the  library 
was  established  in  the  Army  Recreation  Hut,  in 
charge  of  an  enlisted  man,  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Red  Cross  directress.  The  one  object  was  to  get 
the  books  into  the  hands  of  the  men  as  soon  as 
possible. 

Approximately  8000  volumes  were  distributed 
during  the  month  that  Miss  Isom  spent  at  Mesves, 
a  month  which  she  describes  as  having  afforded  her 
the  most  interesting  and  satisfying  work  of  her  life. 
"I  don't  know  which  thrilled  me  the  most,"  she  says, 
"to  glance  into  one  of  the  little  library  rooms  and 
through  the  clouds  of  smoke  discover  the  men  packed 
together,  every  chair  filled,  still  as  mice,  each  man 
with  a  book,  or  to  stand  at  one  end  of  a  long  ward  of 
bed  patients,  and  to  see  books  propped  up  in  front  of 
the  men  with  useless  hands,  all  happy,  all  transported 
into  another  world,  where  for  the  time  anguish  and 
homesickness  were  forgotten.  One  of  the  nurses  said 
to  me,  *When  I  went  back  on  the  ward  after  dinner, 
instead  of  fretful,  fault-finding  boys,  bored  and  mis- 
erable, nearly  every  lad  was  curled  up  on  his  bunk,  as 
happy  as  a  king.  It  was  better  than  a  good  dinner.'  " 

Miss  Isom  also  visited  Nevers,  Mars-sur-Allier, 
Dimon,  Beaune,  and  Allerey,  everywhere  organizing 


172  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

libraries  and  distributing  fresh  supplies  of  books. 
Similar  visits  to  Le  Mans,  Angers,  Nantes,  Savenay, 
St.  Nazaire,  La  Rochelle,  Bordeaux,  and  Perigueux 
during  January  and  February,  1919,  served  to  empha- 
size the  importance  of  developing  and  extending  the 
library  service. 

As  the  hospitals  were  evacuated  the  books  were 
returned  to  Paris.  A  large  percentage,  however,  were 
worn  out  or  had  disappeared. 

Men  of  all  grades,  from  commanding  officers  to  pri- 
vates, expressed  their  pleasure  at  having  a  chance  to 
read.  They  were  eager  to  catch  up  on  their  profes- 
sions or  trades,  and  the  latest  books  and  periodicals 
on  engineering,  agriculture,  machinery,  automobiles, 
and  electricity  were  constantly  asked  for.  French  and 
Spanish  textbooks  were  in  demand.  Poetry,  essays, 
histories  of  France,  works  on  French  architecture, 
handbooks  of  design,  maps,  plays,  books  on  mineral- 
ogy, geology,  mathematics,  books  in  Italian,  and 
books  in  German  for  wounded  prisoners  were  greatly 
needed. 

"I  can't  praise  too  highly  the  sending  of  books 
and  magazines,"  wrote  a  private  formerly  on  the  staff 
of  the  New  York  Public  Library,  from  Base  Hospital 
number  8,  at  the  Front.  "For  example,  one  of  the 
magazines  you  sent  was  left  in  a  ward  where  there 
were  109  patients;  it  was  passed  from  man  to  man, 
and  when  it  no  longer  seemed  to  circulate  was  taken 
to  another  ward  of  an  equal  number  of  beds.  A  very 
little  arithmetic  makes  apparent  at  how  little  cost  a 


o 
o 

I— I 
H 

» 
O 

y 

1-4 
> 

< 

Pi 
< 
Pi 


14^.  ('„,/,  r,r„i„/   Jf  Vmhrwood 

CONVALESCENT  SOLDIER  AT  DEBARKATION  HOSPITAL 
GRAND  CENTRAL  PALACE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  SICK  178 

man  received  great  pleasure.  And  truly  the  greatest 
happiness  was  not  the  enjoyment  of  the  magazine,  but 
this  great,  helpful,  inspiring,  strengthening  thought 
—  that  people  back  home,  collectively  as  well  as  in- 
dividually, suflSciently  realized  oxu*  situation  and  felt 
for  us  to  give  us  these  influencing  little  things." 

A  young  American  ambulance  driver  lay  in  a  Paris 
hospital  with  a  smashed  shoulder.  He  was  still  very 
weak,  but  able  to  be  amused.  His  nurse,  an  American 
girl,  paused  at  his  bedside,  and  as  she  noted  his 
improvement  asked  with  a  smile: 

"What  can  I  do  for  you?" 

"Would  —  would  you  read  aloud  to  me?" 

"Of  course,"  she  said  heartily.  "What  would  you 
like  —  what  would  you  like  most?" 

He  smiled. 

"If,"  he  said  —  "if  you  only  had  a  short  story  by 
Booth  Tarkington." 

A  badly  wounded  man  in  a  large  base  hospital  in 
France,  on  hearing  of  the  visit  of  a  woman  whose 
novel  he  had  read  in  a  popular  English  magazine, 
asked  the  favor  of  a  chat  with  her.  "I  don't  think 
I'm  likely  to  pull  through  this  bout,  ma'am,"  said 
he.  "I've  had  two  turns  before  in  hospital  —  but 
I'd  like  to  thank  you  for  writing  that  jolly  yam.  It's 
cheered  me  up  a  bit  and  shown  me  that  there's  some 
good  in  suffering." 

One  of  the  stories  that  came  to  Headquarters  was 
of  a  lad  with  both  arms  shattered,  who,  looking  long- 
ingly at  the  big  basket  of  books  gomg  down  the 


174  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ward,  said,  "I'd  like  a  book,  but  I  can't  turn  the 
pages."  "I'll  prop  it  up  and  your  buddy  will  turn 
the  pages,"  said  the  librarian.  The  boy's  eyes  danced: 
"  I'm  going  to  invent! "  he  exclaimed.  "  I  just  bet  I 
can  turn  those  leaves  with  a  stick  or  a  pencil  be- 
tween my  teeth! "  And  the  librarian  left  him  prac- 
ticing, as  though  it  were  the  best  fun  in  the  world. 

The  supervisor  found  so  much  to  do  for  these  hos- 
pital lads  that  she  longed  for  more  books  and  more 
help,  but  when  she  felt  disheartened  she  thought  of 
the  words  of  a  patient  at  Mars  and  was  encouraged. 
*' Mother,"  said  he,  "until  the  books  came  I  just 
counted  the  bricks  in  the  wall  day  after  day."  "How 
long  have  you  been  here.  Sonny?"  "Three  months!" 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY 

The  night  after  war  was  declared,  Mrs.  H.  M.  Gas- 
kell,  C.B.E.,  lay  awake  wondering  how  she  could  best 
help  in  the  coming  struggle.  Recalling  how  much  a 
certain  book  she  had  read  during  a  recent  illness  had 
meant  to  her,  she  realized  the  value  of  providing  liter- 
ature for  the  sick  and  wounded.  A  few  days  later  she 
dined  with  some  friends  and  talked  over  this  oppor- 
tunity for  service.  The  result  was  that  Lady  Batter- 
sea  decided  to  lend  Surrey  House,  Marble  Arch,  for 
the  work.  Lord  Haldane,  who  was  War  Minister  at 
the  time,  approved  the  plan  officially,  and  Sir  Alfred 
Sloggett,  then  head  of  the  Royal  Army  Medical 
Corps,  gave  his  official  sanction.  The  work  was  no 
sooner  under  way  than  the  Admiralty  asked  whether 
the  new  organization  would  be  willing  to  supply  the 
Navy,  the  sound  men  as  well  as  the  sick.  Mrs.  Gas- 
kell's  brother,  Mr.  Beresford  Melville,  entered  into 
the  work  with  enthusiasm  and  gave  it  financial  sup- 
port. 

The  call  for  books  was  the  first  appeal  of  the  war, 
and  newspapers  were  glad  to  give  their  space  and 
support  free  to  the  letters  asking  for  reading  matter 
for  the  sick  and  wounded.  To  the  surprise  of  the  or- 
ganizers not  only  parcels  and  boxes,  but  vanloads  of 
books  were  delivered  at  Surrey  House.  Hastily  im- 


176  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

provised  bookcases  rose  quickly  to  the  ceilings  of  the 
rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  then  up  the  wide  stair- 
way, filling  three  immense  rooms  and  crowding  the 
corridors.  It  was  impossible  for  the  overworked  vol- 
unteers to  keep  up  with  this  unexpected  volume  of 
gifts.  Dr.  C.  T.  Hagberg  Wright,  of  the  London  Li- 
brary, was  appealed  to,  and  when  he  came  to  Surrey 
House  and  saw  the  multitude  of  books,  he  decided  to 
call  upon  his  assistants.  With  five  of  his  staff  he  set  to 
work.  It  was  necessary  to  hire  empty  wagons  to  stand 
at  the  door  for  the  refuse,  of  which  there  was  a  huge 
quantity,  for  many  people  had  seized  this  as  an  op- 
portunity to  clean  out  their  rubbish  piles  and  credit 
themselves  with  doing  a  charitable  turn  at  the  same 
time.  Old  parish  magazines  were  sent  in  by  tens  of 
thousands,  only  to  be  passed  on  to  the  waiting  wag- 
ons. There  were,  however,  over  a  million  well-selected 
books,  including  rare  editions  of  standard  authors. 
The  latter  were  put  to  one  side  for  sale  and  the  money 
thus  received  was  invested  in  the  kind  of  books  most 
needed.  While  one  set  of  helpers  was  unpacking, 
another  was  sending  off  carefully  selected  boxes  of 
books  to  small  permanent  libraries  in  the  military 
and  naval  hospitals  from  lists  furnished  by  the  Ad- 
miralty and  War  Office. 

The  permanent  hospitals  were  supplied  with  a 
library  before  the  wounded  arrived,  and  as  the  war 
area  expanded  the  War  Library  followed  with  litera- 
ture. Advertisements  were  inserted  in  American  and 
Canadian  newspapers  in  response  to  which  many 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY         177 

publishers  sent  most  acceptable  gifts  from  across  the 
water.  Later,  large  consignments  of  literatm*e  came 
from  South  Africa,  Australia,  Madeira,  the  Canary- 
Islands,  and  New  Zealand.  English  publishers  were 
more  than  generous.  One  publisher  sent  six  hundred 
beautifully  printed  copies  of  six  of  the  best  novels  in 
the  English  language,  bound  in  dark  blue  and  red 
washable  buckram.  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  gave  eighty  thousand  copies  of  little  khaki- 
covered  Gospels,  printed  on  thin  paper  with  the  Red 
Cross  or  the  Union  Jack  decorating  the  cover. 

In  November,  1914,  the  Admiralty  asked  the  War 
Library  organization  to  supply  the  sailors  in  the 
North  Sea  Fleet  at  the  rate  of  a  book  a  man.  Not  only 
was  this  done,  but  boxes  of  books  were  sent  to  all  the 
guards  around  the  coasts  of  the  British  Isles,  the  Shet- 
land and  Orkney  Isles,  and  the  West  Coast  of  Ire- 
land. When  the  Camps  Library  was  organized  by  Sir 
Edward  Ward  and  the  Honorable  Mrs.  Anstruther, 
for  the  strong  and  healthy  soldiers  in  camps  and 
trenches,  the  originators  of  the  War  Library  met 
with  the  promoters  of  the  new  scheme  and  discussed 
a  division  of  labor.  The  field  of  work  was  increasing 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  was  agreed  that  the  War 
Library  should  look  after  the  "imfit"  in  the  Army 
and  Navy,  while  the  new  organization  would  take 
care  of  the  "fit."  This  plan  worked  very  well,  but 
alas!  as  Mrs.  Gaskell  reports,  "as  the  wide-flung  bat- 
tle-field extended,  the  supply  of  books  dwindled.  We 
were  in  despair.  The  papers,  filled  with  other  appeals. 


178  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

could  only  insert  ours  by  payment,  and  money,  too, 
had  become  very  scarce.  Meanwhile,  hospitals  in 
France  doubled.  Sick  in  Lemnos,  Malta,  Gallipoli, 
Egypt,  grew  in  numbers  to  an  alarming  extent;  books 
were  asked  for,  cabled  for,  demanded,  implored.  Our 
hearts  were  indeed  heavy-laden."  Relief  came  through 
the  action  of  Mr.  Herbert  Samuel,  then  Postmaster- 
General,  who,  after  paying  a  visit  to  the  camps  and 
seeing  life  in  the  trenches,  decided  that  the  Post- 
Office  should  help  in  the  work  by  forwarding  reading 
material  for  the  men  to  the  depots  without  charge. 

Then  the  Red  Cross  and  Order  of  St.  John  was 
asked  to  affiliate  the  War  Library  scheme  with  its 
organization.  In  October,  1915,  it  not  only  agreed  to 
do  this  but  became  financially  responsible  for  the 
undertaking,  the  promoters  of  the  latter  promising 
in  return  to  supply  the  literature  that  they  and  their 
hospitals  required  —  which  meant  considerably  over 
two  hundred  thousand  books  and  magazines  a  year. 

When  the  beds  at  Gallipoli  were  being  rapidly 
filled  with  the  sick  and  wounded,  a  cable  would  come 
to  Surrey  House:  "Send  twenty-five  thousand  books 
at  once,  light  and  good  print."  Perhaps  the  day  be- 
fore Malta  had  cabled  for  ten  thousand  similar  books. 
The  demand  grew  by  leaps  and  bounds.  No  hospital 
at  home  or  abroad  asked  without  receiving  the  full 
quota  requested.  Thousands  of  books  and  magazines 
were  sent  every  month  to  East  Africa,  Bombay,  Mes- 
opotamia, Egypt,  Saloniki,  and  Malta.  Fortnightly 
parcels  went  to  the  hospitals  in  France  and  to  the 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        179 

Cross  Channel  Hospital  Service.  Toward  the  close  of 
the  war,  the  War  Library  was  supplying  approxi- 
mately 1810  hospitals  in  Great  Britain,  262  in  France, 
58  naval  hospitals,  and  70  hospital  ships.  The  libra- 
ries on  the  transport  hospital  ships  were  replenished 
every  voyage. 

Books  were  sent  not  only  to  hospitals  but  to  various 
other  places,  such  as  rest  camps,  casualty  clearing 
stations,  ambulance  drivers'  units,  and  nurses'  rest 
homes.  In  1918  a  branch  was  started  in  Genoa  to 
supply  reading  matter  to  the  medical  units  and  hos- 
pitals serving  with  the  British  Army  in  Italy.  In  all, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  the  spring  of  1919, 
the  War  Library  distributed  over  six  milHon  books 
and  magazines,  —  a  statement  easy  to  remember, 
but  diflScult  to  grasp.  Of  this  number  the  records 
show  that  over  two  million  seven  hundred  thousand 
—  as  well  as  thirty-six  tons  of  weekly  papers  —  were 
acquired  by  purchase.  The  remainder  came  from  pri- 
vate donors,  from  collecting  centers  established  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  and  as  a  result  of  special  book 
campaigns  organized  and  carried  through  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Library  committee.  In  many  large  towns 
meetings  were  held,  addressed  by  such  speakers  as 
Sir  Arthur  Stanley,  the  Rt.  Hon.  Augustine  Birrell, 
the  Poet  Laureate,  Sir  Herbert  Warren,  Mr.  Edmund 
Gosse,  Lord  Chilston,  Mr.  Putnam,  Lady  Beau- 
champ,  the  Dean  of  Worcester,  Sir  Charles  Walston, 
the  Headmaster  of  Dulwich  College,  Dr.  Hagberg 
Wright,  and  Mrs.  Gaskell. 


180  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Men  whom  typhoid  and  dysentery  had  weakened 
were  not  able  to  hold  books  at  all,  and  needed  pic- 
tures instead.  Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling  had  foreseen  this 
need  and  asked  those  in  charge  to  supply  strong 
brown  paper  scrapbooks  filled  but  not  crowded  with 
pictures.  His  suggestion  was  immediately  adopted. 
These  scrapbooks  were  made  from  sheets,  forty-three 
by  twenty-seven  inches,  folded  three  times,  forming 
a  book  of  sixteen  pages,  about  fourteen  by  eleven 
inches,  tied  together  at  the  back  with  a  bow  of  bright 
ribbon.  On  the  outside  an  attractive  colored  picture 
was  pasted.  The  inside  pages  were  filled  with  enter- 
taining pictures,  both  in  black  and  white  and  in  color, 
interspersed  with  httle  jokes,  anecdotes,  and  very 
short  stories  from  such  weeklies  as  Punch,  London 
Opinion,  and  Answers.  Short  poems  were  found  to  be 
acceptable  space-fillers.  Comic  postcards  were  used, 
but  no  Christmas  cards.  Pictures  were  always  placed 
straight  before  the  eye  so  that  the  invahd  would  not 
have  to  turn  the  scrapbook  around  in  order  to  see 
them,  for  many  a  patient  was  too  weak  even  to  lift 
his  hand,  and  had  to  await  the  coming  of  a  nurse  in 
order  to  know  what  the  next  page  had  in  store  for 
him.  Volunteer  makers  of  these  aids  to  cheer  were 
urged  to  remember  that  they  were  for  grown  men, 
not  for  children.  They  were  furnished  in  large  num- 
bers by  a  generous  public,  and  proved  invaluable. 
Fresh  scrapbooks  were  supphed  to  the  hospital  ships 
each  voyage.  A  young  soldier,  just  recovering  from 
typhoid,  came  to  the  War  Library  on  his  return  from 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY         181 

Egypt  and  was  asked  to  look  about  and  tell  what  he 
would  have  liked  best  during  his  convalescence.  "I 
was  too  tired  to  read,"  said  he,  "but  I  would  have 
given  a  lot  for  one  of  those  picture-books."  This  type 
of  convalescent  could  use  games  to  advantage  and  so 
the  War  Library  started  a  Games  Department.  There 
was  a  never-ceasing  demand  for  playing  cards,  dom- 
inoes, draughts,  and  good  jigsaw  puzzles  —  even 
with  a  few  pieces  missing.  Anything  that  could  be 
packed  flat  was  acceptable. 

The  books  asked  for  by  the  soldiers  ranged  all  the 
way  from  penny  novelettes  to  Shakespeare  and  "The 
Hundred  Best  Poems."  Exciting  and  absorbing  sto- 
ries —  "The  Bull-dog  Breed,"  "The  Red  Seal,"  and 
"The  Adventure"  series,  for  instance  —  were  in 
great  demand,  and  all  good  detective  stories  were 
hailed  with  delight.  Sevenpenny,  sixpenny,  and  shil- 
ling editions  were  desirable  because  of  their  handy 
size  and  good  print.  For  the  same  reason  single  plays 
of  Shakespeare  were  more  useful  than  "Complete 
Works,"  since  a  book  too  bulky  or  too  somber  is  as 
formidable  to  a  reader  as  a  long  hill  is  to  a  cyclist 
—  the  very  sight  of  it  tires  him.  The  favorite 
authors  were  Nat  Gould,  Jack  London,  Rudyard 
Kipling,  William  LeQueux,  Ridgwell  Cullum, 
Charles  Garvice,  Guy  Boothby,  A.  Conan  Doyle, 
W.  W.  Jacobs,  Florence  Barclay,  Ian  Hay,  Cutcliffe 
Hyne,  "Q,"  John  Oxenham,  H.  A.  Vachell,  Edgar 
Wallace,  Rider  Haggard,  Dumas,  and  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson. 


'  182  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Books  on  handicrafts  and  trades  were  often  asked 
for.  "I  received  the  book  you  have  so  kindly  sent  me 
on  practical  gas-fitting  and  thank  you  very  much  for 
same/'  wrote  a  man  who  had  put  in  a  special  request. 
"It  deals  with  everything  you  could  wish  to  know  on 
the  subject.  I  am  sure  it  will  be  a  great  help  to  me 
when  the  time  comes  for  my  discharge  from  the 
Anny." 

Mrs.  Gaskell  comments  on  the  curiously  different 
appetite  for  books  shown  by  the  overseas  contingent, 
remarking  that  the  Canadians  have  an  insatiable  de- 
sire for  books  of  reference,  as  evidenced  by  three 
requests  from  Colonial  Hospitals  asking  for  the  En- 
cyclopedia Britannica  in  forty  volumes  —  all  of 
which  were  duly  granted. 

Maps,  such  as  the  Strand  War  Map,  were  most 
acceptable;  the  wounded  soldiers  liked  to  follow  the 
war  from  their  beds,  and  apparently  enjoyed  maps  as 
a  traveler  enjoys  turning  over  the  leaves  of  Brad- 
shaw,  with  its  constant  reminders  of  joumeyings  and 
adventures. 

The  officers  asked  for  new  six-shilling  novels  and 
all  kinds  of  hghter  biographies,  what  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson  calls  "heroic  gossip."  "Garibaldi  and  the 
Thousand"  (Trevelyan),  "Beatrice  d'Este"  (Miss 
Cartwright),  and  "Portraits  and  Sketches"  (Edmund 
Gosse)  were  popular.  Travel  books  of  all  sorts  were 
acclaimed;  so,  too,  were  the  light-to-hold  editions  of 
Thackeray,  Dickens,  E.  A.  Poe,  Kipling,  and  Mere- 
dith. The  reviews,  especially  Blackwood'sy  The  Eng^ 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        183 

lish  Review,  and  the  Comhill,  were  much  appreciated, 
both  by  the  sick  and  the  well.  ^ 

In  January,  1917,  a  New  Books  Department  was 
opened  in  connection  with  the  War  Library.  To  pro- 
vide the  necessary  accommodations  the  servants* 
quarters  and  stables  of  Surrey  House  were  utilized. 
Each  room  was  filled  with  a  particular  class  of  read- 
ing matter  —  as  novels,  books  of  travel,  religious 
books,  magazines.  A  recent  report  shows  that  in  one 
month  seventy-seven  thousand  new  books  and  four- 
teen thousand  magazines  were  purchased.  This  im- 
portant and  diflBcult  phase  of  the  work  was  in  charge 
of  an  American  woman  —  Miss  Ejioblock,  sister  of 
Edward  Knoblock,  the  playwright. 

The  workers  were  encouraged  to  renewed  eflFort  by 
the  countless  letters  they  received  from  all  over  the 
war  area.  "I  don't  know  how  we  should  live  without 
your  books,"  wrote  one  wounded  soldier.  "I  am  just 
waiting  until  my  pal  has  finished  to  get  hold  of  his 
book,"  wrote  another.  "We  have  no  books,"  was  the 
appeal  of  an  isolated  group  of  wounded  in  Egypt. 
"All  we  have  had  to  read  here  was  a  scrap  of  the  ad- 
vertisement page  of  a  newspaper  picked  up  on  the 
desert,  and  on  it  we  saw  that  you  send  books  to  sick 
and  wounded.  Please  hurry  up  and  send  some.  The 
flies  are  awful." 

^  Ian  Hay  pictures  the  mess  after  dinner,  the  day  that  a  heavy  and 
long  over-due  mail  had  been  found  waiting  at  St.  Gregoire.  "  Letters 
had  been  devoured  long  ago.  Now,  each  member  of  the  mess  leaned 
back  in  his  chair,  straightened  his  weary  legs  under  the  table,  and 
settled  down,  cigar  in  mouth,  to  the  perusal  of  the  Spectator  or  the 
Toiler,  according  to  rank  and  literary  taste." 


184  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

An  oflScer  in  charge  of  a  Casualty  Clearing  Hospi- 
tal wrote  of  the  great  joy  in  camp  when  he  distributed 
the  contents  of  a  parcel  among  the  patients.  Every 
man  in  the  hospital  had  something  to  read  and  for 
many  hours  the  monotony  of  hospital  life  was  greatly 
relieved.  A  popular  paper-bound  novel  by  Nat  Gould 
seldom  lasted  a  week.  The  men  would  hide  it  for  fear 
of  its  being  taken  away.  It  was  passed  surreptitiously 
from  bed  to  bed,  or  carried  in  pockets  like  a  treasure 
trove.  When  it  had  been  literally  read  to  pieces,  there 
was  sure  to  be  a  request  for  another  story  by  the  same 
author,  —  a  writer  probably  unknown  to  American 
librarians,  but  of  whose  books,  we  are  told  by  the 
publisher,  over  twelve  million  copies  have  been  sold. 
According  to  the  Athenwum,  he  is  the  most  popular  of 
living  writers,  and  among  the  great  of  the  past,  Du- 
mas alone  surpasses  him  in  popularity.  His  publisher, 
Mr.  John  Long,  says  that  no  sooner  did  the  first  of 
the  American  troops  take  up  their  post  in  France 
than  some  Tommy  whispered  furtively,  "Hey!  'ave 
you  got  a  Nat  Gould?"  "We  don't  smoke  them 
in  America,"  the  Yankee  whispered  back,  apologeti- 
cally. "I  can  let  you  have  a  Fatima!"  "Aw,  go  on! 
Nat  Gould  ain't  a  cigarette,  he's  the  greatest  living 
British  author ! " 

"Even  in  my  small  experience,"  wrote  a  hospital 
visitor,  "I  have  seen  how  much  actual  good  can  re- 
sult from  the  interest  given  the  wounded  men  by 
having  something  really  good  to  read  —  and  apart 
from  the  pleasure  it  gives  them. 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        185 

"Private  K was  very  down  on  his  luck,  for  he 

has  been  badly  wounded  and  will  never,  I  am  afraid, 
be  physically  strong  again.  But  since  I  wrote  to  him 
and  sent  him  books  he  has  cheered  up  wonderfully 
and  says  life  is  now  quite  different.  Out  of  the  gener- 
ous supply  you  sent  me  for  him  I  have  chosen  Macau- 
lay's  *  Warren  Hastings,'  Eraser's  'Siberia,'  and  that 
very  nice  little  book  on  the  French  Pioneers  in  the 
New  World.  When  he  has  read  those  I  will  send  him 
some  more." 

A  Red  Cross  worker  who  had  just  returned  from  a 
fom*  months'  tour  in  the  Mediterranean  zone  in- 
cluding Malta,  Egypt,  Macedonia,  and  Italy,  re- 
ported that  he  had  visited  nearly  every  hospital  and 
convalescent  home,  and  had  either  voyaged  in  or 
inspected  a  large  number  of  hospital  ships,  and  that 
everywhere  he  had  been  told  and  had  seen  for  him- 
self what  magnificent  work  was  being  done  by  the 
War  Library.  '*I  am  sure  it  would  delight  you  and 
your  fellow  workers,"  he  said,  "to  see  ward  after 
ward  where  the  patients  are  kept  interested  and 
happy  by  the  books  and  magazines  which  you  send 
out  with  such  splendid  regularity. 

"I  know  the  diflBculties  you  have  in  keeping  up  the 
large  supply  that  is  required,  but  I  am  sure  that  if 
the  donors  could  see  for  themselves  the  happiness 
which  their  gifts  bring  they  would  readily  continue 
their  generous  contributions." 

"When  I  took  an  armful  of  books  over  to  the  men  I 
was  greeted  with '  Books !  oh  joy ! ' "  said  another  letter. 


186  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"How  can  I  attempt  to  thank  you  in  words  for 
this  last  parcel  of  books  and  magazines?"  wrote  a 
patient  confined  to  his  bed  and  making  little  improve- 
ment. "Previous  ones  have  given  me  pleasure,  but 
the  contents  of  this  one  to  hand  are  delightful.  Rus- 
kin's  'Sesame  and  Lilies'  with  his  essay  on  Political 
Economy  of  Art  and  the  8th  note  in  the  addenda,  *  Silk 
and  Purple,'  —  what  reading  it  makes  in  these  days! 

"Then  Fronde's  'Short  Studies,'  Homer's  'Iliad,' 
Caesar's  'Commentaries,'  Emerson's  'Essays,'  and 
Thoreau's  'Walden,'  —  what  a  gift  for  one  to  re- 
ceive! And  how  appropriate  the  last  two  volumes  are, 
coming  as, they  did  on  practically  the  hundredth 
anniversary  of  Thoreau's  birth !  I  had  a  Manchester 
Guardian  sent  in  to  me  to-day,  and  enclose  a  cutting 
which  makes  the  two  books  all  the  more  interesting 
to  me,  especially  as  I  have  not  read  either  of  them. 

"If  by  these  words  I  can  convey  to  you  my  delight 
at  the  receipt  of  the  books,  and  the  pleasure  they  will 
give  me,  I  am  satisfied.  As  I  have  said  before,  my 
regret  is  that  I  am  unable  to  repay  you  except  by  a 
letter  of  thanks,  which  at  the  best  leaves  much  un- 
said. I  like  to  think  that  other  recipients  more  de- 
serving than  me  get  the  same  enjoyment  as  I  do,  and 
if  so  you  do  not  labor  in  vain." 

From  the  Edith  Cavell  Home  of  Rest  for  Nurses 
came  an  appreciative  letter:  "It  was  a  great  delight 
unpacking  the  books,  for  each  one  seemed  just  ex- 
actly the  right  thing,  and  yet  there  was  such  variety 
that  one  wondered  how  it  could  all  have  been  con- 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY         187 

trived.  The  novels,  stories,  poems,  pictures,  the  thor- 
oughly modern  and  present-day  touch,  combined 
with  old-fashioned  charm,  —  it  was  all  delightful." 

"Until  your  parcels  arrived  we  had  only  four  books 
between  thirty  patients  in  one  ward,  another  ward 
of  forty  patients  had  eight  books,  and  so  on,"  wrote 
the  matron  of  a  hospital  in  France.  "  You  can  thus 
imagine  the  joy  when  I  went  into  the  wards  with  my 
arms  full,  telling  them  they  had  been  sent  from  Lon- 
don. The  cheers  were  so  loud  and  so  long  that  I 
thought  the  roof  of  the  wooden  hut  would  collapse." 

A  private  wrote  from  East  Africa:  "Jt  comes  to 
my  mind  that  when  in  France  I  had  on  certain  occa- 
sions to  spend  several  weeks  living  in  a  dug-out  in  a 
very  awkward  part  of  the  line,  being  right  under  the 
nose,  so  to  speak,  of  the  German  guns.  Inside  we 
found  that  some  former  thoughtful  occupants  had 
put  up  a  bookshelf,  which  was  filled  with  a  splendid 
assortment  of  books,  authors  like  Gene  Stratton 
Porter,  Jack  London,  E.  P.  Oppenheim,  Temple 
Thurston,  and  many  others  of  front-rank  fame  being 
represented. 

*'  At  that  time  I  had  no  idea  who  had  supplied  these 
books,  but  was  content  to  just  greedily  devour  them 
without  seeking  to  know  where  they  came  from. 
They  wonderfully  helped  to  preserve  sanity.  Now  a 
very  small  incident  has  brought  it  to  my  notice  that 
you  were  the  donors,  and  I  wish  to  thank  you  heartily. 
At  the  same  time  I  make  bold  to  ask  if  you  could  let 
me  have  any  of  George  Macdonald'sbooks?  I  have  a 


188  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

great  longing  to  read  him,  also  one  of  Kipling's.  I 
shall  be  pleased  to  hand  these  over  to  the  hospital 
library  as  I  read  them." 

"I  want  to  thank  the  War  Library  for  the  parcels 
of  books  that  we  have  been  getting  from  you,"  wrote 
a  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  the  Ambulance  Service.  "We 
have  now  received  four.  The  first  arrived  on  the  20th 
of  March,  and  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans. 
I  hope  they  appreciated  it. 

"We  then  became  embroiled  with  the  owners  of 
our  first  parcel  for  several  weeks,  mails  were  bad  and 
nothing  much  arrived  from  the  Base.  Then  we  retired 
to  the  spot  where  we  now  are,  a  tiny  village,  with 
beautiful  great  bams  for  the  men,  but  no  *estaminet' 
of  any  sort  or  description,  no  kind  of  amusement 
after  working  hours  —  altogether  a  dreary  outlook. 
Then,  in  quick  succession,  having  been  delayed  at 
the  Base,  came  three  more  parcels  of  books.  And  now 
we  have  small  circulating  libraries  in  the  Officers' 
Mess,  in  the  Sergeants'  Mess,  and  in  a  small  hospital 
which  we  run  for  the  sick  of  our  Brigade,  and  every 
man,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  has  one  or  more  gems  of 
literature — *Ivanhoe'  or  Comic  Cuts,  according  to 
taste  —  concealed  in  his  kit.  You  have  saved  us  from 
boredom,  suicide,  or  worse.  Thank  you  very  much 
indeed." 

Owing  to  the  shortage  of  paper  in  England,  the 
publishers  could  not  supply  all  the  orders  sent  in  by 
the  War  Library  and  Mrs.  Gaskell  organized  a  house- 
to-house  visitation  in  the  various  English  towns. 


BOOK  LEFT  FOR  A  MOMENT  BY  A  YOUNG  OFFICER 
WHILE  HE  STEPPED  INTO  A  DUG-OUT  TO  MAKE  A  REPORT 


British  Official  Photograph 

"what  book  are  you  reading?" 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        189 

Great  care  was  taken  to  make  the  parcels  as  varied 
and  comprehensive  as  possible.  Those  sent  to  the 
British  Red  Cross  hospitals  in  France,  for  instance, 
usually  included  twenty-five  papers  and  magazines 
of  the  lighter  sort,  like  the  Strand,  the  IllvMraied 
London  News,  and  the  penny  pictorials,  one  or  two 
of  the  heavier  periodicals,  ten  serious  or  technical 
books,  and  from  forty  to  fifty  novels  of  several  grades. 
The  packages  sent  to  the  English  hospitals  contained 
more  magazines  and  penny  papers.  Specific  requests 
were  always  promptly  filled.  The  work  of  selection 
was  done  by  volunteers,  who  were  kept  informed  as 
to  the  special  needs  of  the  places  to  which  the  books 
were  to  go. 

The  organization  had  to  be  well  thought  out  to 
prevent  the  occurrence  of  mistakes,  for  a  parcel  in- 
tended for  an  officers'  hospital  on  the  Riviera  must 
not  be  sent  to  a  Tommy  Atkins  hospital  in  Mesopo- 
tamia. "The  selectors  must  have  intellectual  sympa- 
thies," says  Mrs.  Gaskell,  "and  human  sympathies. 
They  must  send  a  parcel  to  a  general  hospital  that 
contains  Masefield's  'Prose  Selections*  and  a  large 
sprinkling  of  the  'Bull-dog  Breed'  series.  Sometimes 
as  I  touch  the  books  and  send  them  speeding  on  their 
way,  I  think  of  the  strange  company  traveling  to  a 
still  stranger  fate.  Boswell  and  Pepy?,,  Nick  Carter 
detective  stories,  the  Bible,  Nat  Gould,  Words- 
worth's Prelude,  Famous  Boxers,  the  Koran,  Miss 
Austen,  Mark  Twain,  Marie  Corelli,  Macaulay,  Lon- 
don Opinion,  the  Round  Table,  go  side  by  side  to  be 


190  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

read  —  by  whom?  All  we  know  is  that  those  brave 
souls  find  their  comfort  and  consolation  in  reading, 
for  they  tell  us  so  and  ask  for  more.  Suffering,  weari- 
ness, loneliness,  depression,  weakness,  fear  of  death 
—  most  of  us  have  known  one  or  the  other.  But  these 
brave  hearts  know  one  and  all;  still  worse,  the  fear 
sometimes  of  inaction  for  life.  Only  books  can  make 
them  forget  for  a  few  minutes,  an  hour  perhaps.  I 
cannot  ask  for  books  with  thoughts  in  my  heart 
like  these;  they  ask,  and  surely  they  will  not  ask  in 
vain." 

The  Armistice  greatly  increased  the  call  for  books. 
"Patients  and  staff  miss  the  excitement  of  the  war," 
writes  Mrs.  Gaskell,  "and  it  is  difficult  to  keep  pace 
with  the  craving  for  literature  of  all  kinds."  Techni- 
cal books  on  professions  and  trades  are  particularly  in 
demand.  To  meet  the  needs  of  the  situation  the  War 
Office  has  started  an  educational  scheme  in  all  army 
centers,  appointing  an  educational  officer  in  every 
hospital  of  over  a  thousand  beds,  and  supplying  a 
small  library  for  his  use  with  the  patients. 

"I  beg  to  inform  you  that  I  have  received  five 
splendid  parcels  of  books,  for  which  I  am  very  grate- 
ful," wrote  the  Commanding  Officer  of  a  Cavalry 
Field  Ambulance,  from  Cologne.  "These  books  are 
highly  appreciated  by  the  patients  and  personnel, 
and  help  to  pass  away  many  a  weary  hour  of  the 
Rhine  Watch.  As  in  all  probability  my  unit  will  re- 
main here  until  the  Army  of  Occupation  is  with- 
drawn, any  further  supplies  would  be  very  welcome. 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        191 

"Now  that  we  are  stationary  I  am  able  to  run  a 
knding  library,  thus  preserving  the  books  for  quite  a 
long  time;  whereas  hitherto  we  have  been  forced  to 
send  the  bulk  of  each  parcel  to  the  nearest  Casualty 
Clearing  Station  on  account  of  being  continuously  on 
the  move.  The  first  parcel  arrived  at  Heppeldorf  in 
the  middle  of  an  influenza  epidemic  and  the  books 
were  invaluable  to  the  convalescent  patients." 

"  I  don't  know  when  I  was  so  glad  to  see  anything," 
said  the  Sister-in-Charge  of  a  Casualty  Clearing  Sta- 
tion, in  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  a  package  of 
books.  "Each  day  the  men  were  asking  for  'some- 
thing to  read,*  and  not  a  book  in  the  place.  Now  that 
the  war  is  over  it  is  so  diflScult  to  get  them,  and  really 
I  think  a  sick  man  wants  them  even  more  badly  than 
a  wounded.  I  'm  thankful  indeed  that  you  are  still  to 
the  fore!" 

The  Senior  Medical  Oflicer  at  the  Royal  Naval 
War  College,  Devonport,  wrote  to  say  that  he  hoped 
the  War  Library,  which  had  done  such  valuable  work 
during  hostilities,  was  still  carrying  on.  "You  will 
remember,"  he  continued,  "that  you  were  good 
enough  to  supply  me  with  several  boxes  of  books 
when  in  the  hospital  ship  Queen  Alexandra.  I  am  now 
appointed  to  this  institution,  which  is  a  Naval 
Auxiliary  Hospital.  We  have  104  beds,  which  are 
constantly  filled,  but  the  men  are  badly  off  both  for 
recreation  and  literature.  We  are  endeavoring  to 
meet  the  needs  as  regards  recreation,  and  my  col- 
leagues and  I  would  much  value  it  if  you  are  able  to 


192  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

send  a  box  of  books  and  magazines  similar  to  the 
boxes  that  were  so  helpful  to  us  in  our  work  in  the 
Queen  Alexandra.  This  ship  has  been  paid  off,  and  I 
think  it  may  interest  you  to  know  that  the  books 
remaining  at  the  end  of  the  commission  were  dis- 
tributed to  vessels  engaged  in  mine-sweeping  duties 
and  to  men  stationed  at  lonely  look-outs  and  signal 
stations  on  the  West  Coast  of  Ireland." 

Although  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  send  books 
weekly  to  Saloniki,  Egypt,  and  Bombay,  regular 
supplies  are  needed  at  Constantinople.  In  February, 
1919,  over  30,000  volumes  had  already  been  sent  to 
the  North  Russian  expedition,  whose  appetite  for 
literature  seems  insatiable.  At  the  request  of  the  War 
Library  the  American  Library  Association  selected 
and  bought  on  the  War  Library's  account,  two  thou- 
sand American  books,  which  were  shipped  to  Siberia 
from  San  Francisco.  The  Red  Cross,  realizing  how 
great  a  need  still  exists,  has  continued  its  generous 
support  in  carrying  on  the  work. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  a 
medical  officer  serving  with  the  North  Russian  Expe- 
ditionary Force  emphasizes  the  importance  of  the 
service  to  the  men  in  these  distant  regions : 

"Six  fine  bales  of  books  have  just  arrived  from  the 
War  Library.  They  have  been  eagerly  welcomed,  and 
I  cannot  tell  you  how  highly  they  are  appreciated. 
I  have  never  seen  books  so  eagerly  sought  for  as  these 
have  been,  and  the  way  some  late  arrivals  picked  up 
a  few  stray  covers  of  magazines  was  most  pathetic. 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        193 

I  am  going  to  save  two  of  the  bales  for  a  little  ad- 
vanced hospital  I  am  getting  mider  way,  and  the  rest 
have  been  distributed  to  the  sick  men  who  are  not 
near  enough  death  to  be  sent  away  to  the  hospital. 
I  have  become  such  a  shameless  beggar  that  I  am 
going  to  ask  for  more;  I  feel  mean  always  saying 
'give,  give'  in  this  way,  but  the  books  are  really  of 
immense  value  up  here  in  the  long  hours  of  darkness, 
and  mails  only  arrive  about  once  a  month." 

It  is  the  desire  of  all  who  have  seen  the  success  of 
the  War  Library  that  the  work  carried  on  for  soldiers 
and  sailors  during  the  war  should  be  continued,  and 
extended  to  include  civilian  hospitals.  That  conva- 
lescence is  accelerated  if  the  mind  of  the  patient  can 
be  kept  interested  and  occupied  no  longer  needs 
demonstration.  "We  all  know  from  our  own  experi- 
ences in  illness,"  says  Dr.  Wright,  "that  books  are  a 
kind  of  minor  anaesthetic,  and  pain  is  not  so  keen  if 
one  can  get  something  to  read."  Yet  the  fact  remains 
that  the  ordinary  hospital  is  inadequately  supplied 
with  reading  matter,  and  the  pati^its  are  condemned 
to  long,  empty  hours.  It  has  therefore  been  proposed 
that  the  Red  Cross  should  maintain  in  London  a 
permanent  central  library,  to  supply  literature  to  all 
the  hospitals  in  Great  Britain.  What  remains  of  the 
libraries  of  the  demobihzed  hospitals  would  serve  as 
the  nucleus  of  the  book  collection,  and  the  work 
heretofore  carried  on  by  the  War  Library  would  be 
transferred  to  the  new  institution. 

"The  war  has  revealed  how  much  of  our  ordinary 


194  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

behavior  is  founded  on  sound  instinct,"  said  the  Poet 
Laureate  in  an  address  at  Oxford  on  behalf  of  the 
War  Library.  "All  of  us,  when  we  are  harassed  or  dis- 
tressed, seek  alleviation  in  mental  distraction.  And 
our  common  panacea  is  a  story-book.  The  grave 
Bishop  Butler  tells  us  that  our  thoughts  are  never  so 
idle  as  when  we  are  reading.  He  did  not  mean  the 
reading  of  his  sermons.  He  meant,  I  suppose,  that 
when  we  are  truly  thinking,  our  thoughts  are  self- 
generated  within  us,  and  this,  with  our  intense  con- 
scious scrutiny  of  them,  is  a  laborious  process  —  as 
is  easily  seen  when  we  put  it  on  strain,  for  then  it 
appears  as  the  most  exhausting  of  all  our  energies. 
But  when  we  are  merely  reading  (not  studying)  the 
thoughts  are  supplied  to  us  from  without;  and  the 
mind  is  undisturbed,  lying,  as  it  were,  as  much  at  rest 
as  the  body  may  be  on  its  bed  or  sofa. 

"Now  this  form  of  mental  distraction  has  been 
proved  eiBBcacious  under  the  most  severe  trial,  even 
in  the  very  shadow  of  death.  These  light  books,  then, 
are  an  essential  comfort  to  the  soldier,  and  necessary 
also  to  the  wounded,  whose  condition  of  constant 
pain  and  nervous  weakness  often  calls  as  much  for 
distraction  as  the  anxiety,  perpetual  peril,  and  strain 
of  the  trenches;  and  the  books  have  to  be  provided  in 
unlimited  quantities.  Nor  need  we  distinguish  much 
among  them.  Some  are  no  doubt  better,  some  worse; 
but  their  various  artistic  merits  sort  themselves  out 
suitably  to  the  various  capacities  of  the  readers,  while 
their  moral  significance  counts  for  nothing  —  it  is  as 


THE  BRITISH  WAR  LIBRARY        195 

wholly  disregarded  as  the  moral  of  an  exciting  fairy- 
tale is  by  a  young  child. 

"The  other  class  is  the  more  serious  literature,  for 
which  there  is  an  increasing  demand.  This  demand  is 
partly  due  to  the  later  enrollments  being  from  a  differ- 
ent class  from  the  earlier;  there  are  more  students  in 
the  hospitals,  or  men  to  whom  the  war  came  as  an 
interruption  of  intellectual  life;  and  such  men,  when 
their  physical  condition  does  not  forbid,  are  eager  to 
return  to  their  old  interests,  and  make  use  of  their 
enforced  leisure  to  pursue  their  studies.  Also  the  men 
from  overseas  are  more  inquiring  and  practical  than 
our  homefolk,  and  are  demanding  textbooks,  books 
of  reference,  handbooks  of  science,  and  so  on. 

"Any  enforced  cessation  of  life's  routine,  such  as  a 
long  convalescence  after  severe  illness,  is  apt  to  pro- 
duce an  unusual  activity  of  mind.  The  condition 
seems  to  create  a  fertile  soil  for  new  and  enduring  im- 
pressions. It  is  the  best  seed-time  that  an  adult  mind 
can  have:  and  the  serious  books  that  we  may  send 
will  be  seed-corn  for  prepared  fields.  We  should  be 
able  to  supply  them  well. 

"But  since  there  is  no  one  here,  who,  if  he  were  in 
personal  contact  with  one  wounded  man  —  a  man 
lying  in  hospital  with  a  shattered  limb  and  needing  a 
book  to'comfort  him  —  since  there  is  no  man  who,  if 
he  were  in  personal  contact  with  such  a  man,  would 
not  give  him  willingly  any  book  that  he  might  pos- 
sess, —  what  need  to  say  more? 

"And  how  many  of  my  own  books  are  idle  posses- 


196  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

sions!  Books  that  I  have  bought  because  I  knew  that 
I  ought  to  read  them,  and  should  not  read  imless  I 
possessed  them,  and  which  yet  I  have  never  read!  If 
these  books  are  wanted  they  must  go.  Not  only  is  the 
occasion,  whether  of  charity  or  duty,  inexpressibly 
beyond  all  our  imagination  —  for  there  has  never 
been  an  occasion  to  compare  with  it  —  but  it  may  be 
reckoned  of  national  significance  and  importance. 

"Charles  Darwin  used  to  read  the  scientific  period- 
ical called  Nature  through  from  end  to  end  every 
week,  including  the  proceedings  of  the  learned  socie- 
ties, and  the  mathematics  which  he  could  not  under- 
stand, because,  as  he  said,  he  thought  it  a  useful  dis- 
cipline to  keep  himself  conscious  of  his  Hmitations. 
And  these  men  need  initiation  into  this  knowledge 
of  their  ignorance  —  to  perceive  how  vast  the  field  of 
knowledge  is;  how  old  and  difficult  the  problems  that 
seem  to  them  so  new  and  simple.  If  they  are  earnest 
and  willing  learners,  as  many  of  them  are,  they  will 
advance  on  that  path.  For  when  once  the  appetite 
for  wisdom  is  excited  it  is  not  lightly  quenched.'* 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  UBRARY 

The  Camps  Library  owed  its  origin  to  the  desire  of 
the  EngHsh  to  prepare  in  every  way  for  the  arrival  of 
their  oversea  brethren  who  were  coming  to  join  the 
Imperial  Army.  The  various  contingents  were  to  be 
encamped  on  Salisbury  Plain  —  a  place  admirably 
adapted  for  military  concentration  and  training,  but 
without  any  opportunities  for  recreation.  Colonel 
Sir  Edward  Ward,  late  Permanent  Under-Secretary 
for  War,  was  asked  by  Lord  Kitchener  to  undertake 
the  general  care  of  the  contingents  from  the  colonies. 
Sir  Edward  suggested  that,  among  other  things 
needed  for  the  troops,  libraries  be  established  for 
their  use.  The  War  OflBce  approved,  and  the  Honor- 
able Mrs.  Anstruther  undertook  the  organization  of 
the  work.  An  empty  house  in  Great  Smith  Street, 
Westminster,  was  hired  as  a  depot,  and  a  number  of 
volunteer  workers  came  forward  with  offers  of  help. 
An  appeal  to  the  public  through  the  press  for  books 
and  magazines  to  lighten  the  monotony  of  the  long 
autumn  and  winter  evenings  of  the  soldiers  encamped 
on  Salisbury  Plain  met  with  an  immediate  response. 
Within  twenty-four  hours  horse  and  motor  traflBc 
filled  Great  Smith  Street,  often  blocking  the  road, 
while  people  with  packages  of  books  poured  in 
through  the  door.  As  time  went  on  the  lower  rooms 


198  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

of  the  house  were  heaped  high  with  bales  and  boxes, 
which  presently  overflowed  —  first  into  the  hall,  then 
into  the  passage,  afterwards  down  the  back  stairs, 
then  into  the  kitchen  and  cellar,  and  finally  out  into 
the  little  back  yard. 

The  Association  of  Publishers  sent  a  large  contri- 
bution of  suitable  literature.  In  a  short  time  forty 
thousand  books  and  magazines  had  been  collected. 
As  they  were  received,  they  were  sorted  and  labeled 
as  the  property  of  the  Overseas  Library. 

When  it  was  found  that  the  Australian  and  New 
Zealand  contingents  would  not  land  in  England, 
but  would  disembark  in  Egypt,  it  became  necessary 
to  divide  the  books  for  the  Canadians  from  those  for 
the  Australians  and  New  Zealanders.  Special  tents, 
fitted  with  rough  shelving  and  tables,  were  provided 
in  the  camps  of  the  Canadian  soldiers.  On  the  arrival 
of  the  contingent,  the  chaplains  undertook  the  care 
and  distribution  of  the  books.  The  desire  of  those 
who  had  given  the  books  was  that  every  facility 
should  be  afforded  the  men  in  obtaining  them,  and 
that  no  stringent  restrictions  should  be  imposed  upon 
the  loans.  The  charging  system  was  a  simple  one:  a 
manuscript  book  in  which  each  man  wrote  the  name 
of  the  book  borrowed,  the  date  on  which  borrowed, 
and  his  signature,  the  entry  being  erased  when  the 
book  was  returned.  "We  found  that  our  labors  had 
the  reward  for  which  we  worked  and  hoped,"  wrote 
Sir  Edward.  "The  oversea  soldier  is  an  omnivorous 
reader,  and  we  had  the  gratification  of  learning  that 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY      199 

our  efforts  to  lighten  the  dreary  evening  hours  were 
very  deeply  appreciated." 

Large  quantities  of  books  and  magazines  were  for- 
warded to  the  Australians  and  New  Zealanders  in 
Egypt.  Then  a  much  larger  enterprise  was  launched: 
the  provision  of  libraries  for  the  camps  of  the  Terri- 
torial and  New  Armies  all  over  the  United  Kingdom. 
Troops  were  quartered  in  camps  and  at  detached 
stations  far  from  towns  and  healthful  amusements, 
and  these  men  were  as  much  in  need  of  good  reading 
matter  as  the  soldiers  on  Salisbury  Plain.  A  large 
empty  warehouse,  lent  through  the  kindness  of  the 
representative  of  the  Belgian  Army  in  London,  was 
equipped  with  shelves  and  tables  and  a  further  ap- 
peal was  made  to  the  public  through  the  press,  by 
letters  to  lord-lieutenants  and  other  leaders  in  the 
various  counties,  to  lord  mayors  and  mayors,  and 
again  to  the  publishers.  Circulars  were  sent  to  all  gen- 
eral officers  commanding  and  the  commanding  offi- 
cers' units,  informing  them  of  the  new  undertaking, 
and  stating  that  preparations  had  been  made  to  give 
them  books  and  magazines  in  the  proportion  of  one 
to  every  ten  men  of  their  strength,  at  a  small  charge 
sufficient  to  pay  for  the  cost  of  packing  and  the  labor 
of  the  working  staff  which  it  was  found  necessary  to 
employ,  as  warehousemen  and  the  like. 

At  first  the  supply  of  books  was  ample,  but  with 
success  came  increased  demands  from  troops  in  every 
part  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  search  out  fresh  fields  from  which  new  supplies 


200  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

might  be  gathered.  Then  came  the  realization  that 
men  in  the  trenches  and  in  the  convalescent  and  rest 
camps  at  the  front  needed  books  and  magazines  even 
more  urgently  than  did  the  troops  at  home.  "When 
it  is  recognized,"  said  Sir  Edward,  "that  in  the 
trenches  only  one  fourth  of  the  men  are  actively  on 
duty  watching  the  enemy,  while  the  remaining  three 
fourths  are  concealed  at  the  bottom  of  the  trenches 
with  their  field  of  vision  limited  to  a  few  yards  of 
earth,  it  may  well  at  once  be  realized  how  important 
to  them  are  any  methods  of  enlivening  the  long, 
weary  hours  of  waiting." 

By  this  time,  in  spite  of  redoubled  efforts,  a  marked 
decline  in  the  volume  of  gifts  was  noticeable.  People 
became  weary  of  well-doing  and  found  it  irksome  to 
go  on  regularly  packing  their  spare  books  and  paying 
for  their  carriage  to  London.  An  anxious  time  ensued 
for  the  workers  at  the  Camps  Library.  More  and 
more  reading  matter  was  being  asked  for  by  the  troops 
in  the  battle  zones.  With  the  inflow  diminishing,  how 
would  it  be  possible  to  cope  with  the  growing  demand.'* 
As  in  the  case  of  the  War  Library,  this  difficulty  was 
solved  by  the  Postmaster-General's  decision  to  uti- 
lize the  Post-Office,  with  its  ramifications  in  every 
town  and  village  in  the  United  Kingdom,  for  the  col- 
lection of  books  from  the  public.  From  that  time  on, 
those  wishing  to  send  books  or  magazines  to  the 
soldiers  and  sailors  needed  only  to  hand  them,  un- 
addressed,  unwrapped,  and  unstamped,  over  the 
counter  of  any  post-office  and  they  were  forwarded 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY      201 

free  of  charge  to  Headquarters.  Some  magazines  even 
printed  on  the  outside  cover  a  reminder  of  this  fact, 
admonishing  the  reader,  on  finishing  the  number,  to 
send  it  to  the  troops  by  leaving  it  without  any  for- 
mality or  expense  at  the  nearest  post-office.  The  post- 
office  staff  was  keenly  interested  in  this  scheme  and, 
though  short  of  help,  made  the  proper  disposal  of  the 
material  thus  entrusted  to  their  care  a  matter  of 
personal  pride  and  honor. 

After  the  Armistice,  when  the  work  of  the  Library 
was  drawing  to  a  close,  a  letter  was  sent  to  the  post- 
masters, thanking  them  on  behalf  of  the  Army  for 
the  work  they  had  done,  and  asking  at  the  same  time 
if  they  could  state  what  means  they  had  found  most 
effective  in  bringing  before  the  public  the  need  of 
books.  "With  one  accord  they  replied  that  they  were 
indebted  for  the  greatest  assistance  to  the  local  press, 
which  not  only  inserted  their  appeals  for  books,  but 
constantly  printed  leading  articles  and  paragraphs 
relating  to  the  work,  and  also,  at  the  request  of  the 
postmaster  of  the  district,  gave  the  Camps  Library  the 
benefit  of  a  continuous  and  gratuitous  advertisement. 

Another  point  on  which  the  postmasters  were 
unanimous  was  the  value  of  the  personal  appeal  — 
the  "personal  attack,"  as  some  one  called  it.  It  is 
difficult  to  realize  the  individual  effort  which  the 
hard-worked  postmasters  expended  throughout  the 
war,  by  writing  personal  letters,  by  speaking  on  public 
platforms,  and  by  private  conversation  on  the  subject. 

The  Camps  Library  had  reason  to  feel  that  no 


202  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

institution,  working  as  it  did  under  two  departments, 
—  the  War  Oflfice  and  the  Post-Office,  —  was  ever 
left  a  freer  hand,  was  ever  less  conscious  of  what  is 
known  as  official  red  tape,  or  ever  received  more 
prompt  attention  and  courteous  treatment  in  all  its 
dealings  with  departmental  officials. 

In  order  to  insure  a  steady  and  systematic  supply 
of  books  from  the  public,  advertisement  necessarily 
formed  an  essential  part  of  the  work  of  the  Library. 
Thanks  to  the  valuable  assistance  of  many  people 
experienced  in  this  art,  the  fact  that  the  troops 
wanted  books  and  that  book  hoarding  was  as  repre- 
hensible as  food  hoarding  was  kept  vividly  before  the 
minds  of  the  people.  The  theater  and  picture  palaces 
throughout  the  country  did  yeoman  service  in  stimu- 
lating the  generosity  of  the  public,  the  cinema  giving 
screen  notices  night  after  night  to  large  and  enthu- 
siastic audiences. 

An  admirable  reminder  was  devised  by  Mr.  Dennis 
Eadie  when  producing  the  successful  play,  "The  Man 
Who  Stayed  at  Home."  Tucked  away  in  every  pro- 
gramme was  a  notice  asking  the  audience  to  give 
their  books  to  "The  Man  Who  Went  Out."  And  to 
the  brilliant  genius  of  Captain  Bairnsfather  was 
due  the  delightful  cartoon  "Oh  'elll  'Ello!"  which, 
through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Charles  Cochran,  was 
distributed  at  every  representation  of  the  classic 
war  play,  "The  Better  'Ole,"  and  was  undoubtedly 
responsible  for  the  increase  in  the  flow  of  books 
which  was  noticeable  about  that  time. 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY        203 

The  public  libraries  of  Great  Britain  also  acted 
as  centers  for  the  collection  of  books,  and  in  many 
instances  supplemented  the  contributions  of  the 
public  by  considerable  gifts  from  their  own  surplus 
and  duplicate  stocks.  Large  shops  and  important 
business  houses  in  London  and  in  many  towns  assisted 
greatly  by  enclosing  the  Library  appeals  in  their  bills 
and  advertisements.  House  agents  and  furniture 
movers  pointed  out  to  their  clients  the  desirability 
of  giving  away  their  surplus  books  when  moving 
from  one  house  to  another.  Hotels  placed  collecting 
baskets  in  their  halls  and  lounges.  Many  organi- 
zations and  clubs  helped  by  displaying  the  Camps 
Library's  notices. 

Perhaps  the  most  effective  method  adopted  was 
that  of  letting  the  Army  advertise  for  itself.  In  each 
box  and  bale  sent  out  was  a  letter,  addressed  to 
"  The  Reader,"  enclosing  a  card  which  he  was  re- 
quested to  return  to  his  friends  or  relatives  at  home, 
asking  them  to  take  all  their  spare  literature  to  the 
Post-Office.  How  many  Tommies  filled  in  that  post- 
card, or  how  many  responses  there  were  to  the  call, 
will  never  be  known. 

Under  the  order  made  by  the  Paper  Controller 
prohibiting  returns,  the  proprietors  of  many  weekly 
newspapers  sent  their  unsold  copies.  More  than  once 
anonymous  boxes  of  school  prizes  and  boys'  books 
came  in,  doubtless  from  the  parents  of  a  lad  who  had 
fallen  on  the  battle-field. 

One  of  the  first  to  send  a  gift  of  books  to  the 


204  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Library  for  the  use  of  the  men  was  Her  Majesty  the 
Queen,  and  her  gift  was  repeated  regularly  every 
year  while  the  war  lasted.  Marie  Corelli  gave  several 
hundred  copies  of  her  books  and  Renee  Kelly  pre- 
sented a  special  edition  of  "Daddy  Longlegs."  Many 
other  authors  contributed  a  number  of  their  works. 

Books  came  from  the  children  in  the  schools,  from 
labor  organizations,  from  the  staffs  of  government  de- 
partments and  of  great  business  houses.  They  came 
from  members  of  every  religious  body,  from  the  mem- 
bers of  the  theatrical  profession,  from  members  of  the 
stock  exchange,  from  those  who  had  many  books  and 
could  send  them  by  the  hundreds,  and  from  those 
who  had  few  and  could  ill  spare  them  —  there  was 
not  a  class  in  the  community  which  did  not  give. 
Never  was  a  more  democratic  collection  of  posses- 
sions assembled  than  that  which  throughout  the 
war  represented  Literature  to  the  soldiers,  for  at 
the  Camps  Library  the  personal  books  of  the  Queen 
and  those  of  the  little  slavey  in  the  lodging-house 
met  together  and  went  out  cover  to  cover  to  the  lads 
across  the  sea. 

As  a  result  of  the  Post-OflSce  scheme,  backed  by 
the  advertising  methods  just  described,  books  were 
received  in  such  large  quantities  that  it  became  neces- 
sary to  secure  more  commodious  quarters  and  the 
Library  migrated  again,  this  time  to  a  building  at  45 
Horseferry  Road,  Westminster,  previously  occupied 
by  a  firm  of  pianoforte  manufacturers;  this  insured 
floors  strong  enough  to  support  the  many  hundreds 


PQ 


O 
Q 

:^ 
o 

Q 
O 

« 

Pi 
H 
Em 

CO 
O 

a? 
H 

« 

g  ! 

C    a 
Q     S 

W     S3 

I.       w 

S  i 

-<     a 

tf    o 
oa   o 

cc    ^ 

<J 


M     a; 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY       205 

of  well-filled  canvas  bags  from  the  Post-Office  which 
came  in  day  after  day,  filling  the  rooms  from  floor 
to  ceiling. 

A  part  of  the  literature  collected  in  this  way  was 
distributed,  according  to  an  agreed  proportion  of 
bags,  to  the  London  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the 
British  and  Foreign  Sailors'  Association,  and  the 
British  Red  Cross  and  Order  of  St.  John  War  Library. 
The  bulk  went  to  the  Camps  Library,  which  alone 
required  seventy-five  thousand  pieces  weekly  to  meet 
the  ordinary  minimum  needs  from  the  various  seats 
of  war,  and  was  ready  and  eager  to  deal  with  as  much 
more  as  the  public  would  give.  Especially  in  winter 
was  the  demand  for  "something  to  read"  in  training 
and  rest  camps,  and  at  the  front,  far  in  excess  of  the 
supply. 

The  following  spontaneous  tribute  was  published  in 
the  Sporting  Times  : 

"Of  all  the  boons  that  have  been  booned  by  the 
British  Public  on  the  British  fighting  men,  one  of  the 
best  is  the  distribution  of  books  and  magazines  car- 
ried out  by  the  Camps  Library.  I  dunno  who  or  what 
the  Camps  Library  is,  or  where  it  sprung  from,  but 
the  people  that  run  it  —  well,  I  take  my  hat  off  to 
them  every  time.  The  fighting  forces  are  not  fighting 
all  the  time,  and  in  the  intervals  there  is  quite  a  lot 
of  waste  time  running  to  seed.  There  are  times  when 
the  men  have  nothing  to  do  and  all  day  to  do  it  in. 
The  men  in  the  support  trenches,  for  instance,  are 
not,  in  normal  times,  in  action,  but  they  may  be  at 


206  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

any  moment,  so  may  not  quit  their  trench.  There 
is  n't  room  in  the  most  modem  built  trench  for  a 
game  of  football,  and  pingpong  isn't  fashionable. 
There  are  always  cards  to  fall  back  on,  but  even  the 
keenest  card-player  gets  fed  up  if  he  plays  cards  for 
days  on  end,  and  especially  so  if  he  has  n't  any  pay 
left  to  gamble  with.  The  only  hope  of  escape  from 
monotony  of  counting  fingers  and  cursing  the  luck  is 
in  reading.  The  Camps  Library  fills  the  aching  void 
with  an  occasional  cart-load  of  sixpenny  mags  and 
sevenpenny  novels,  and  I  doubt  if  the  promoters 
can  ever  realize  a  tenth  of  the  blessings  heaped  upon 
their  heads  by  the  troops.  If  those  Recording  Angels 
who  have  been  detailed  for  the  duties  of  filing  the 
blessing  and  blistering  remarks  of  the  Army  in  Flan- 
ders keep  an  accurate  tally  of  the  good  things  said  of 
the  Camps  Library,  they  must  be  working  overtime 
most  days  and  nights.  I  dunno  where  the  Library  h.q. 
hang  out,  or  who  is  its  CO.,  but  if  any  reader  of  this 
letter  knows  these  things,  I  hope  they  '11  heave  along 
a  chunk  of  appreciation  and  any  *Pinh  kilns'  and 
other  spare  reading  matter  for  distribution." 

"I  understand  most  fully,"  wrote  Sir  Douglas 
Haig,  "the  value  of  readable  books  to  men  who  are 
out  of  the  line,  with  time  on  their  hands,  and  little 
opportunity  of  getting  anything  of  the  sort  for  them- 
selves. I  need  say  nothing  to  support  the  claim  of 
those  who  are  wounded  or  convalescent.  The  Camps 
Library  exists  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  books  and 
magazines  for  distribution  to  our  sailors  and  soldiers. 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY        207 

The  demand  that  has  now  to  be  met  is  very  great  and 
increases  constantly  with  the  growth  of  our  forces 
overseas.  I  am,  therefore,  writing  this  letter  to  urge 
all  those  at  home  who  have  been  accustomed  to  buy 
books  and  magazines  in  the  past,  to  continue  to  do  so 
freely,  if  possible  in  increasing  numbers,  and,  having 
read  and  enjoyed  them,  to  pass  them  on  as  freely  to 
the  Camps  Library  for  circulation  among  the  troops." 

The  system  of  distribution  was  simple.  Any  com- 
manding officer  of  a  camp  at  home  or  abroad  who 
wished  to  establish  a  lending  Hbrary  for  the  use  of  his 
men  could  call  upon  the  Camps  Library  for  books. 
These  were  sent  out  in  lots  of  fifty  or  one  hundred, 
in  the  proportion  of  one  book  to  every  ten  men.  But 
it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  formation  of  lending 
libraries  of  bound  books  in  stationary  camps  was 
only  a  small  part  of  the  work.  What  the  men  abroad 
needed  most  was  a  steady  supply  of  magazines  and 
light  literature.  Automatically,  therefore,  once  a 
month,  no  application  being  necessary,  boxes  or 
bales  of  books  and  magazines  were  sent  to  all  units 
serving  with  the  British,  Mediterranean,  and  Indian 
expeditionary  forces.  Monthly  supplies  of  magazines 
were  sent  to  the  bases  for  the  use  of  the  men  entrain- 
ing for  the  Front.  A  supply  was  sent  to  regimental 
recreation-rooms  on  request.  Chaplains  of  every 
denomination  in  every  theater  of  war  received  on 
application  a  box  once  a  fortnight,  or  a  bale  once  a 
month,  for  distribution. 

Fortunately  the  bulk  of  the  literature  sent  in  by 


208  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

the  public  consisted  of  magazines,  weekly  papers, 
and  paper-covered  novels  —  resembling  very  closely 
the  contents  of  a  bookseller's  stall.  So  magazines,  old 
and  new,  went  by  the  score,  by  the  hundred,  by  the 
thousand  to  the  trenches,  and  quantities  of  paper- 
covered  novels  and  of  the  little  "sevenpennies,"  day 
in,  day  out,  were  collected  and  sent  across  the  water 
to  the  men  in  the  battle  area. 

When  it  is  realized  that  every  week  seventy  thou- 
sand of  these  publications,  packed  in  assorted  boxes, 
of  eighty  each,  left  the  Library,  and  that  each  one 
had  to  be  examined  to  see  that  no  seditious  leaflets 
had  been  slipped  into  it,  it  will  be  understood  that 
the  work  of  the  Library  was  no  sinecure.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  war  to  the  closing  of  the  career 
of  the  Camps  Library  as  a  war  charity  on  March 
29,  1919,  the  number  of  publications  dealt  with  was 
close  to  sixteen  millions,  over  three  quarters  of  which 
were  voluntary  gifts  from  the  public. 

Generally  speaking,  the  books  that  were  received 
were  the  kind  that  were  needed,  fiction,  travel  and 
adventure,  history,  and  poetry  predominating.  There 
were  illustrated  books,  books  on  former  wars,  books 
on  geography,  science,  agriculture,  and  gardening, 
classics,  ancient  and  modern,  frivolous  books,  learned 
books,  heavy  books,  and  volumes  of  sermons  galore. 
What  the  men  chiefly  wanted  was  stories  —  love 
stories,  detective  stories,  sentimental  stories;  as  they 
said  over  and  over  again  in  the  letters  of  thanks 
that  came  by  every  post,  * 'something  to  make  us 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY        209 

forget  the  horrors  of  war  and  all  that  we  are  going 
through." 

Occasionally  a  gift  showed  more  generosity  than 
discrimination  on  the  part  of  the  donor,  and  helpers 
with  some  courage  and  discretion  as  well  as  literary 
knowledge  were  needed  to  superintend  the  sorting 
and  to  condemn  as  waste  such  publications  as  old 
parish  magazines,  seedsmen's  circulars,  telephone 
books,  post-oflSce  directories,  out-of-date  Bradshaws, 
antiquated  lists  of  club  members,  and  novels  of  which 
half  the  leaves  were  missing.  "Hints  to  Mothers," 
"How  to  Cut  a  Smart  Blouse,"  and  "How  to  Organ- 
ize Mothers'  Meetings"  did  not  seem  quite  appropri- 
ate to  send  to  war-worn  soldiers;  on  the  other  hand, 
"Woman  and  How  to  Manage  Her"  was  a  book  that 
it  was  felt  might  find  some  appreciative  readers!  The 
authorities  found  it  rather  difficult  to  deal  with  a 
herring-barrel  full  of  sermons,  and  were  at  a  loss  to 
know  what  to  do  with  a  packet  of  passionate  love- 
letters  included  by  mistake.  People  desirous  of  helping 
were  asked  not  to  send  "Talks  about  Dressmaking," 
"Meditations  among  the  Tombs,'*  or  "Guides  to 
English  Watering-Places. " 

But  in  war-time  nothing  is  useless,  and  the  value 
of  waste  paper  was  considerable;  with  the  proceeds 
from  its  sale  many  thousands  of  books  and  magazines 
were  purchased. 

Books  in  every  language  were  received;  French, 
German,  Chinese,  Japanese,  Greek,  Hindustani, 
Maori,  and  Gaelic  found  their  way  to  the  Library. 


210  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Once,  in  the  grave  and  anxious  days  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  some  one  sent  in  a  "Guide  to  Germany." 
It  was  first  suggested  that  this  should  be  discarded, 
but  a  far-seeing  optimist  rescued  it  from  destruction 
and  set  it  in  a  prominent  place  to  be  kept  for  the  time 
when  it  should  be  useful  to  guide  the  army  into  the 
land  of  the  enemy.  On  the  day  the  Armistice  was 
signed,  that  book  went  over  to  France. 

Any  doubts  as  to  whether  the  books  and  maga- 
zines were  appreciated  by  the  men  for  whom  they 
were  intended,  were  quickly  dispelled  by  a  glance 
through  the  hundreds  of  letters  kept  at  Headquarters. 
"Cramped  in  a  crumbling  dugout,  time  passes  slowly, 
and  the  monotony  is  greatly  relieved  by  a  few  'mags* 
from  the  old  folks  at  home,"  wrote  one  oflBcer  from 
the  Front.  "The  men  all  ask  for  pre-war  magazines.  It 
is  nice  to  get  away  from  'it'  for  a  time."  A  letter  from 
France  brought  this  message:  "The  last  parcel  of 
your  books  came  just  as  we  had  been  relieved  after 
the  gas  attack,  and  there  is  nothing  like  a  book  for 
taking  one's  mind  off  what  one  has  seen  and  gone 
through." 

"A  hut  will  probably  be  allotted  to  us  as  a  recrea- 
tion-room, and  it  will  contain  bookcases  made  by  our 
own  pioneers  from  bacon-boxes  to  hold  your  gifts," 
reported  another  oflBcer.  Supply  wagons  known  to 
contain  parcels  of  books  were  eagerly  watched  for  by 
the  troops  in  the  Land  of  Somewhere.  "The  lads  were 
never  so  pleased  in  their  lives  as  when  I  told  them  I 
had  some  books  for  them,"  is  the  way  one  lance  cor- 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY        211 

poral  put  it.  An  extract  from  another  oflBcer's  letter 
tells  the  same  story:  "Most  of  the  men  were  lying  or 
sitting  about  with  nothing  to  do.  When  I  said  I  had  a 
box  of  books  to  lend,  they  were  around  me  in  a  mo- 
ment like  a  lot  of  hounds  at  a  worry,  and  in  less  than 
no  time  each  had  a  book  —  at  least  as  far  as  they 
would  go.  Those  who  had  n't  been  quick  enough  were 
trying  to  get  the  lucky  ones  to  read  aloud.  It  would 
have  done  you  good  to  see  how  the  men  enjoyed  get- 
ting the  books.  .  .  .  May  we  have  more,  as  many 
more  as  you  can  spare?" 

In  fact,  appreciative  letters  poured  in  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  A  regimental  officer  wrote  from 
Gallipoli  that  he  considered  it  most  important  "to 
give  the  men  some  occupation  in  this  monotonous 
and  dull  trench  warfare."  "The  long  hours  of  waiting 
that  frequently  fall  to  the  lot  of  a  unit  in  the  trenches 
are  not  nearly  so  trying  if  the  men  have  a  good  sup- 
ply of  books,"  is  the  testimony  of  another  officer. 
"All  the  books  sent  seem  very  welcome,  for  soldiers' 
tastes  vary,"  said  one  writer  from  "Somewhere  in 
France."  The  men  in  Saloniki  requested  a  Greek  his- 
tory, their  interest  in  the  subject  having  been  awak- 
ened by  the  treasures  of  antiquity  which  they  had 
excavated  while  digging  trenches.  "It  would  give  us 
great  joy  to  get  a  few  books  on  Syria  and  Palestine" 
was  the  statement  of  an  Army  chaplain.  "I  myself 
can  get  but  few  books  —  none  about  the  Crusaders, 
only  Dr.  Stewart's  about  the  Holy  Land.  And  my 
men  are  hungry  for  information.  I  have  sent  for 


212  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

books  and  they  have  not  come.  I  would  gladly  pay 
for  any  book  on  either  subject  mentioned.  The  diffi- 
culties of  transport  have  got  in  my  way.  When  I  was 
in  Cairo  I  could  not  get  a  guide  to  Syria  or  book 
on  the  Crusaders,  either  in  English  or  French.  Yet 
the  life  out  in  the  desert,  or  rather,  wilderness,  is  con- 
ducive to  mental  receptivity  and  thought  of  higher 
things." 

"Owing  to  the  great  heat  no  one  is  allowed  to  leave 
his  tent  between  nine  and  five;  without  your  papers 
and  books  life  would  indeed  be  dreary,"  declared  one 
note  of  thanks.  "You  cannot  perhaps  realize  what  it 
means  to  get  literature  when  one  is  quite  away  from 
civilization,  right  out  as  we  have  been  in  the  desert, 
with  a  dull  monotony  of  sand  and  yet  more  sand!" 
were  the  words  of  another.  From  a  different  part  of 
the  globe  came  similar  testimony :  "It  would  be  diffi- 
cult for  any  one  who  had  not  seen  the  conditions  up 
here  to  quite  understand  what  a  boon  it  is  to  the  men 
on  these  long  dark  winter  nights  to  have  something  to 
read,"  said  one  writer.  "The  collection  is  most  excel- 
lent," said  another,  "and  just  what  everybody  wants, 
especially  now  that  deep  snow  and  bitter  Vardar 
winds  make  it  most  unpleasant  to  be  outside  your 
dugout  more  than  is  necessary.  Thank  you  very  much 
indeed,  and  please  continue  to  send  more.  The  dreari- 
ness and  monotony  of  Army  life  in  the  Balkans  make 
your  parcels  more  acceptable  than  perhaps  they  may 
be  even  in  France.  The  men  so  rarely  see  any  vestige 
of  civilization." 


Fiiiiii  I'liitrli  (h;/  perims.iion) 

OWING   TO  A  SCARCITY  OF  LITERARY  MATTER  AT  THE 
FRONT,  THE  BRITISH   SOLDIERS  WERE  SOMETIMES  RE- 
DUCED TO  TELLING  STORIES 

Private  Jones:  "And  she  says,  'Oh!  wot  blinkin'  great  eyes  you  'ave,  Grand- 
mother! '   And  the  wolf,  'e  says,  'All  the  better  ter  see  yer  wiv,  my  dear '" 


J    o 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY        213 

"I  had  the  books  and  magazines  distributed  at 
once,"  wrote  an  officer,  "and  if  you  could  have  seen 
how  eagerly  they  were  taken  up  by  our  exiles  who 
are  so  far  from  libraries  and  reading-rooms  and  the 
civilization  of  home,  you  would  have  been  amply  re- 
paid. And  yet  I  must  not  paint  for  you  a  picture  of 
desolation;  for  really  we  are  remarkably  fortunate  in 
many  ways  out  here.  We  have  had  a  simply  glorious 
summer  —  with  fruit  everywhere,  as  if  this  were  the 
Garden  of  Eden  itself.  But  alas,  Eve  is  not!  and  we 
can  only  read  the  love  stories  of  others." 

"Your  parcel  came  to-day,  just  as  a  crowd  of  our 
men  were  leaving  for  the  Front,"  said  a  letter  from 
Havre.  "I  wish  you  could  have  seen  their  faces  as  I 
was  able  to  relieve  the  tedium  of  a  thirty-six  hour 
journey  —  and  then  the  books  would  be  passed  on 
to  the  men  in  the  firing-line.  I  do  thank  you  on  their 
behalf,  and,  like  Oliver,  ask  for  more." 

Another  letter  contained  this  paragraph:  "I  was 
greatly  touched  once  when  —  on  giving  some  cigar- 
ettes round  the  trenches  —  I  found  the  men  hanging 
round  when  the  last  packet  had  been  given  away.  I 
discovered  they  were  waiting  for  the  sheet  of  news- 
paper (weeks  old)  in  which  they  were  wrapped.  I 
should  not  like  to  say  how  many  men  read  that  torn 
sheet.  And  magazines,  papers,  and  books  are  read  and 
re-read,  and  passed  on  and  passed  round  till  they 
literally  drop  to  pieces." 

An  important  branch  of  the  work  undertaken  by 
the  Camps  Library  was  the  provision  of  fiction  for 


214  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

the  British  prisoners  of  war  in  Germany,  Austria, 
Bulgaria,  and  Turkey,  and  also  for  the  men  interned 
in  Holland.  The  rules  and  regulations  that  had  to 
be  observed  were  stringent;  no  books  dealing  with 
the  war  or  containing  comments  on  Germany,  and 
no  magazines  mentioning  current  events,  could  be 
sent.  It  was  therefore  on  works  by  the  great  writers 
of  English  fiction,  Dickens,  Scott,  Thackeray,  and 
other  standard  authors,  that  the  Camps  Library  re- 
lied for  the  thousands  of  volumes  which  went  to  the 
prison  camps.  Where  a  large  camp  had  a  number  of 
working  camps  attached  to  it,  arrangements  were 
made  by  which  the  librarian  at  the  central  camp  re- 
ceived special  consignments  for  distribution  among 
the  latter.  Parcels  were  also  forwarded  to  individual 
prisoners  who  applied  for  specific  books.  As  a  rule  the 
German  authorities  gave  every  facility  for  the  re- 
ceipt of  the  books  and  their  distribution  among  the 
men.  At  first  considerable  difficulty  was  experienced 
in  getting  in  touch  with  the  prisoners  in  Turkey  and 
Bulgaria,  but  as  communication  improved,  acknowl- 
edgments of  packets  received  reached  the  Library 
Headquarters  regularly. 

Written  on  the  covers  of  some  of  the  books  which 
were  sent  in  were  inscriptions,  like  "Keep  this  next 
your  heart,  it  may  turn  a  bullet,"  or,  in  a  child's  hand, 
"Dear  Soldier,  —  I  do  wish  you  will  fight  well  and 
come  safe  home  to  your  loving  little  kiddies  like  me." 

The  most  pathetic  note  connected  with  the  whole 
work  was  penciled  on  a  sheet  of  paper  fastened  with 


THE  BRITISH  CAMPS  LIBRARY       215 

red  sealing  wax  to  an  inside  page  of  a  copy  of  The 
Story  Teller: 

With  Best  Wishes 

I  am  only  a  little  boy  of  10  years.  And  I  Hope  whoever 
gets  this  Book  will  like  it.  My  father  is  missing.  Since 
the  25  and  26  Sept.  1915.  The  Battle  of  Loos.  I  wonder  if 
it  will  fall  in  the  hands  of  any  one  who  was  in  that  Battle 
and  could  give  us  any  Information  concerning  Him. 

Underneath  was  written  the  name  of  the  lad's 
father,  the  number  of  the  battaUon,  the  name  of  his 
regiment,  and  the  home  address.  Inquiries  were  set 
on  foot,  but,  alas,  they  were  of  no  avail.  The  little 
boy's  father  was  one  of  the  great  army  of  heroes  who 
had  given  their  lives  for  their  country. 


CHAPTER  XII 
BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  UBRABIES 

"Until  the  beginning  of  the  war,"  wrote  F.  A. 
McKenzie  in  the  London  Daily  Mail,  "the  average 
citizen  regarded  the  Y.M.C.A.  as  a  somewhat  milk- 
and-waterish  organization,  run  by  elderly  men,  to 
preach  to  youth.  This  view  was  exceedingly  unfair, 
but  it  is  true  that  the  Y.M.C.A.  never  had  its  full 
chance  here  until  the  war  came.  Then  it  seized  its 
opportimity.  It  does  not  do  much  preaching  nowa- 
days. It  is  too  busy  serving."  By  reason  of  this  service 
the  organization  suddenly  emerged  from  a  position 
of  comparative  obscurity  into  one  of  national  promi- 
nence. "Invaluable  in  peace-time,  but  indispensable 
in  war-time,"  was  the  way  in  which  Lord  Derby 
characterized  it. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  the  Associa- 
tion sent  a  constant  stream  of  books  and  magazines 
to  its  huts  in  Great  Britain  and  overseas.  For  nearly 
two  years  it  made  its  appeal  through  the  Camps  Li- 
brary, but  when  the  demand  for  reading  matter  in- 
creased to  such  an  extent  that  no  single  organization 
could  cope  with  it,  the  Y.M.C.A.  agreed  to  enter 
upon  a  book  campaign  of  its  own.  The  ground  floor 
of  "Triangle  House,"  the  new  Y.M.C.A.  trading  and 
transport  headquarters,  was  set  aside  for  this  purpose 
and  a  strong  staff  of  voluntary  women  workers  un- 


BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  LIBRARIES         217 

dertook  the  task  of  sorting,  packing,  and  dispatching 
books.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ernest  Rhys  energetically  or- 
ganized local  "book-days"  in  London.  Appeals  were 
sent  out  from  the  National  Headquarters,  emphasiz- 
ing the  need  of  thousands  of  books  and  magazines 
every  week  for  the  soldiers  in  camp  and  "up-the- 
line,"  and  urging  that  a  never-ceasing  supply  from  all 
quarters  be  sent  prepaid  to  Triangle  House,  Totten- 
ham Court  Road,  or  to  any  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  Bureaus 
in  London. 

The  public  helped  well  at  first,  but  the  supply 
gradually  dropped  off.  In  consequence  notices  were 
sent  out  in  February,  1917,  asking  for  good  novels  by 
standard  authors;  books  of  history,  biography,  and 
travel;  manuals  of  science;  religious  books;  illus- 
trated magazines;  really  good  literature  of  all  kinds, 
but  not  large,  heavy,  or  out-of-date  books.  Special 
attention  was  called  to  the  need  for  small  pocket 
editions  of  novels  —  the  sevenpenny  and  shilling  size. 
People  were  urged  to  give  something  they  themselves 
really  cared  for,  and  were  notified  by  circular  that 
the  Y.M.C.A.  book  collector  would  call  shortly.  "We 
trust  that  you  will  spare  half  a  dozen  or  more  of  your 
favorite  authors,"  said  the  president  of  the  Ladies' 
Auxiliary  Committee.  "You  will  never  regret  this 
small  sacrifice  for  our  men  serving  their  country." 

Placards  were  distributed,  reading:  "Mobilize 
your  books.  Leave  your  favorite  books,  novels,  war- 
books,  or  current  magazines  at  the  nearest  Y.M.C.A. 
depot,  or  send  them  to  the  Book  Bureau,  144  Totten- 


218  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ham  Court  Road.  They  are  urgently  needed  for  our 
soldiers  abroad,  at  the  base,  and  in  the  trenches." 

Book-teas  or  book-receptions,  to  which  each  visi- 
tor brought  one  or  more  volumes,  proved  fruitful. 
Special  appeals  made  to  great  commercial  bodies, 
banks,  and  large  insurance  companies  were  very  suc- 
cessful, nearly  twenty  thousand  books  coming  in 
from  the  canvassing  of  the  various  banking  institu- 
tions. In  certain  parts  of  the  country,  Y.M.C.A. 
book-days  were  held,  often  securing,  with  the  aid  of 
Boy  Scouts  or  a  collection  taken  on  the  tramways, 
thousands  of  volumes.  Various  Red  Triangle  Maga- 
zine and  Book  Clubs  also  collected  and  forwarded  a 
weekly  or  fortnightly  supply  to  the  Library  Depart- 
ment in  London.  The  sending  of  money  was  encour- 
aged, as  special  arrangements  for  advantageous  pur- 
chasing had  been  made  with  pubhshers  and  with  the 
great  firms  that  nm  the  railway  book-stalls.  One  of 
these  firms  supplied  second-hand  copies  of  standard 
novels  in  good  editions,  at  the  rate  of  six  shillings  per 
dozen. 

That  these  efforts  to  supply  books  to  the  huts,  to 
the  dugouts  along  the  trenches,  and  to  the  men  start- 
ing on  the  tedious  railway  journey  to  the  Front  were 
appreciated  is  proved  by  numerous  letters  received 
at  Headquarters. 

"Nothing  is  better,"  wrote  a  Y.M.C.A.  worker, 
"for  steadying  the  nerves  of  a  regiment  of  young  sol- 
diers on  the  way  to  the  front  line  for  the  first  time 
than  a  good  supply  of  illustrated  magazines.  It  takes 


BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  LIBRARIES         219 

their  minds  off  themselves  and  prevents  them  from 
becoming  jumpy." 

One  soldier  wrote  from  the  trenches:  "We  sit  in 
our  dugouts  and  just  think!  I  wonder  if  you  could 
send  some  books  and  magazines  over  here." 

A  man  in  Egypt,  begging  for  magazines,  said  that 
he  did  not  wonder  that  the  children  of  Israel  grum- 
bled when  they  went  that  way! 

Saloniki  workers  reported  that  mental  cases  were 
largely  on  the  increase  owing  to  intellectual  stagna- 
tion, and  that  a  good  supply  of  books  of  all  kinds  was 
one  of  the  best  possible  preventives  of  mental  break- 
down. 

"We  never  can  secure  enough  reading  matter  to 
while  away  the  hours  in  the  long  French  train  jour- 
neys," wrote  a  Y.M.C.A.  worker  in  France.  A  "sev- 
enpenny "  book  given  to  a  soldier  as  he  boarded  the 
train  to  the  Front  was  read  by  every  man  in  the  pla- 
toon; when  the  owner  was  wounded  he  took  the  book 
to  the  hospital,  where  it  was  read  by  every  man  in 
the  ward.  Having  finally  regained  possession  of  it,  he 
intends  to  keep  it  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Frequently  the  magazines  supplied  to  the  troops 
were  cut  into  sections  to  make  them  go  round,  and 
even  the  printed  wrapping  paper  in  which  parcels 
were  sent  was  smoothed  out  and  read  as  literature. 
The  Y.M.C.A.  felt  that  if  it  could  only  get  hold  of 
the  thousands  of  magazines  and  "sevenpennies"  left 
lying  about  in  clubs,  railway  carriages,  and  private 
houses,  battalions  of  men  might  be  enabled  to  forget 


220  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

for  a  few  moments  the  hardships,  the  risks,  and  the 
monotony  of  active  service. 

The  general  Ubraries  contained  stories,  poetry, 
travel,  biography,  and  essays.  For  the  "Quiet 
Rooms"  devotional  libraries  were  provided,  contain- 
ing the  writings  of  men  like  Augustine,  a  Kempis, 
Bunyan,  Robertson,  and  Spurgeon,  as  well  as  the 
best  outstanding  books  of  the  last  ten  years  on  re- 
ligion. To  fill  this  last  need  it  was  suggested  that  the 
various  church  organizations  might  perform  a  practi- 
cal service  for  the  men  of  the  Army  by  making  up 
libraries  of  this  kind  of  literature. 

Having  taken  over  the  work  formerly  carried  on  by 
the  Fighting  Forces  Book  Council,  whose  special 
task  had  been  the  providing  of  educational  literature 
for  the  Army,  it  became  necessary  for  the  Y.M.C.A. 
to  furnish  educational  books  for  the  huts  where  lec- 
tures and  classes  were  being  carried  on.  There  the 
need  was  found  to  be  not  so  much  for  textbooks  as 
for  interestingly  written  reliable  modern  monographs 
like  those  in  the  "Home  University  Library"  and 
Jack's  series  of  "People's  Books."  Volumes  of 
"Everyman's  Library"  and  Nelson's  reprints  proved 
very  useful.  By  means  of  such  literature  the  men 
were  enabled  to  follow  up  the  lectures  they  had 
heard  and  to  satisfy  their  newly  stimulated  book 
hunger  and  their  interest  in  the  history  of  "Old 
Bhghty." 

An  oflBcer  commanding  a  military  school  of  instruc- 
tion in  France  wrote  to  Headquarters,  asking  for  just 


,/\, 


iii^m* 


ljy,^;^^_J^»UW- 


BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  LIBRARIES         221 

such  a  library  and  sending  a  list  of  the  kind  of  books 
which  he  was  desirous  of  putting  at  the  disposal  of 
the  cadets  during  the  first  stage  of  their  education  at 
his  school.  "I  hope  from  all  this,"  he  concluded,  "you 
may  be  able  to  gather  the  type  of  book  we  should  like 
—  authoritative,  but  not  too  long  or  too  heavy  for 
minds  dulled  to  study  by  trench  life." 

The  scope  of  this  work  was  enlarged  in  the  spring 
of  1918,  when  the  Universities  Committee  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.,  of  which  the  Reverend  B.  A.  Yeaxlee 
was  the  secretary,  was  put  in  charge  of  the  Army 
educational  work  on  the  Lines  of  Communication  in 
France.  A  comprehensive  scheme,  including  plans  for 
the  Hbrary  work,  was  immediately  formulated.  Dr. 
Richard  Wilson  was  appointed  Librarian  to  the  Com- 
mittee, with  control  not  only  of  the  activities  of  Wim- 
bome  House,  but  also  of  the  provision  of  educational 
and  general  literature  for  all  the  libraries  and  classes 
of  the  Y.M.C.A.  Before  long  Saloniki,  Egypt,  Italy, 
Russia,  and  Mesopotamia,  as  well  as  the  home  camps, 
were  brought  into  the  educational  plan,  and  the  li- 
brary service  of  the  great  social  organization  took  on 
a  new  aspect. 

The  policy  of  the  educational  secretary  and  the 
librarian  was  to  provide  the  best  books  wherever 
they  were  needed  and  large  demands  were  at  once 
made  upon  the  funds  of  the  Central  Council,  which 
backed  up  the  new  scheme  with  generosity  and  en- 
thusiasm. During  the  seven  months  following  the  ap- 
pointment of  Dr.  Wilson,  a  sum  of  not  less  than  fifty 


222  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

thousand  pounds  was  spent  on  new  books,  general 
and  educational,  while  the  beneficent  work  of  Wim- 
borne  House  was  continued  and  extended. 

Sir  Henry  Hadow,  Principal  of  the  Armstrong  Col- 
lege at  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  was  appointed  Educa- 
tional Director  on  the  Lines  of  Communication,  and 
after  serving  for  two  months,  was  succeeded  by  Sir 
Graham  Balfour,  the  cousin  and  biographer  of  Rob- 
ert Louis  Stevenson  and  Director  of  the  Stafford- 
shire Education  Committee.  Professor  Findlay,  the 
well-known  educationist  of  Manchester  University, 
became  Director  in  Saloniki,  and  Father  Alexander 
Hill  was,  at  a  somewhat  later  date,  appointed  Di- 
rector of  the  home  educational  work.  As  might  be 
exf)ected,  the  demands  upon  the  library  service  in- 
creased rapidly,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  provide 
for  the  new  bands  of  eager  educational  workers  not 
only  the  necessary  textbooks,  but  also  the  larger  and 
more  expensive  books  required  for  carrying  on  the 
work  by  means  of  private  study  after  class  hours.  The 
recreative  side  of  the  library  service  was  overhauled 
with  a  view  to  providing  lighter  literature  of  a  kind 
which  would  prove  a  useful  auxiliary  to  the  educa- 
tional efforts.  Fortunately  the  men  at  the  head  of 
affairs  had  a  very  broad  and  human  conception  of 
"that  blessed  word"  education. 

A  standardized  list  of  educational  textbooks  was 
drawn  up  by  the  officials  of  the  Universities  Com- 
mittee. This  was  found  necessary  for  the  reason  that 
men  were  continually  being  moved  from  camp  to 


BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  LIBRARIES         223 

camp  and  the  educational  work  was  liable  to  serious 
interruption  if  the  same  books  were  not  used  in  all 
the  Y.M.C.A.  classes.  The  subjects  of  instruction 
included  citizenship,  English  based  upon  a  study  of 
the  Bible  and  Shakespeare,  mathematics  in  all  its 
branches,  the  sciences,  especially  those  of  a  practi- 
cal and  experimental  character,  English,  French,  and 
other  modem  languages,  philosophy,  psychology,  his- 
tory, fine  art,  geography,  commercial  subjects,  and 
the  several  branches  of  technology.  The  books  sent 
out  to  the  classes  were  of  almost  bewildering  variety, 
ranging  from  a  manual  on  butchering  or  cobbling  to 
a  treatise  on  some  abstruse  branch  of  philosophy. 

The  students  were  equally  varied.  At  one  end  of 
the  scale  was  the  man  whose  mind  had  just  been 
awakened  by  the  mental  shock  of  the  war;  at  the 
other  the  post-graduate  student  pursuing  some 
branch  of  original  research  for  a  doctor's  degree  at 
one  of  the  universities.  Several  men  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  their  location  in  Saloniki  to  study  Greek 
archaeology  with  this  end  in  view.  Help  was  given  to 
all,  but  the  sympathy  of  the  Ubrarian  was  especially 
extended  to  the  large  number  of  men,  some  of  whom 
were  of  advanced  age,  who  had  just  begun  to  use 
the  intellectual  faculties  which  had  lain  dormant  in 
times  of  peace  and  security;  men  who  meant  to  come 
back,  if  their  lives  were  spared,  to  a  new  life  and  a 
wider  world  of  thought  and  action.  Herein  lay  the 
great  social  opportunity  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 

"It  is  a  real  pleasure  now  to  go  round  our  huts  and 


224  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

find  quite  respectable  libraries  in  process  of  forma- 
tion. All  our  leaders  speak  enthusiastically  of  the 
service  you  are  rendering,"  wrote  Oliver  McCowen 
from  the  Y.M.C.A.  Headquarters  in  France. 

A  hut  leader,  also  writing  from  France,  reported 
that  the  magazines  and  books  were  not  only  read  in 
the  hut,  but  taken  to  the  men's  quarters  and  passed 
all  round  the  camp.  In  the  isolation  camps  the  books 
were  described  as  a  godsend. 

Another  letter  of  acknowledgment  said:  "The  men 
hailed  with  delighted  gratitude  this  proof  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.'s  interest  and  sympathy  —  as  soon  as  I 
undid  the  string,  I  had  a  crowd  of  men  round  me  to 
see  what  books  I  had  got.  I  am  most  grateful  for  so 
much  up-to-date  material." 

A.  St.  John  Adcock,  describing  a  visit  he  made  to 
the  Y.M.C.A.  huts  in  France  and  Flanders,  wrote  as 
follows:  "Wherever  the  troops  go,  the  huts  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  spring  up  in  the  midst  of  them,  or  if  you 
notice  no  huts  it  is  because  you  are  in  the  danger  zone, 
and  the  Y.M.C.A.  is  carrying  on  its  beneficent  busi- 
ness as  usual  in  dim  cellars  under  shattered  houses 
or  in  convenient  dugouts  among  the  trenches.  .  .  . 
There  is  always  a  library  in  the  Y.M.C.A.  huts  when 
their  arrangements  are  completed.  Sometimes  it  is  in 
a  small  separate  room;  usually  on  half  a  dozen  or 
more  shelves  in  a  comer,  and,  perhaps  because  books 
happen  to  be  my  own  principal  form  of  enjoyment,  I 
always  think  it  adds  just  the  last  touch  of  homeliness 
to  the  hut.  And  you  may  depend  that  thousands  of 


Photo  from  Brown  Bros. 

A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  INTERESTED  IN  THE  WAR  PICTURES 
OF  AN  AMERICAN  MAGAZINE 


BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  LIBRARIES         225 

the  soldiers  think  so,  too.  For  one  has  to  remember 
that  our  armies  to-day  are  like  no  armies  that  ever 
went  out  to  battle  for  us  before.  Most  of  our  soldiers 
in  the  Napoleonic  Wars,  even  in  the  Crimean  War, 
did  not  require  books,  because  they  could  n't  read; 
but  the  British,  Canadian,  Australasian,  and  South 
African  troops  on  service  the  world  over  are  largely 
made  up  of  men  who  were  part  of  what  we  call 
the  reading  public  at  home,  and  if  books  were  their 
friends  in  peace-time  they  are  even  greater  friends  to 
them  now,  especially  when  they  have  to  make  long 
waits  in  base  camps,  far  behind  the  trenches,  and 
have  more  than  plenty  of  leisure  on  their  hands."  As 
Mr.  Charles  T.  Bateman  put  it:  "The  private  of  to- 
day is  not  an  ignorant  yokel  who  has  taken  the  shil- 
ling to  escape  some  trouble." 

Before  making  his  visit  to  the  Front,  Mr.  Adcock 
had  received  letters  from  soldiers  asking  for  recita- 
tions suitable  for  camp  concerts,  for  books  by  certain 
poets  and  essayists,  and  for  textbooks  on  chemistry 
and  biology.  While  he  naturally  found  that  in  the 
camps,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  chief  demand  was  for 
fiction,  there  were  many  requests  for  biography,  es- 
says, poetry,  and  history.  One  man  who  was  reading 
Macaulay's  "History"  regretted  that  there  was  only 
an  odd  first  volume  in  the  Kbrary,  as  he  was  anxious 
to  get  hold  of  the  second.  A  sergeant  ran  off  a  score  of 
titles  of  novels  and  memoirs  he  had  recently  read,  and 
was  then  tackling  Boswell,  He  was  anxious  to  know 
if  Mr.  Adcock  could  send  him  half  a  dozen  copies  of 


226  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Omar  Khayydm,  which  he  would  like  to  give  to  some 
of  his  men  as  Christmas  presents.  There  were  several 
Dickens  enthusiasts  in  the  camp.  One,  who  knew 
nothing  of  Dickens  except  "A  Tale  of  Two  Cities" 
before  he  went  out,  had,  since  being  in  France,  bor- 
rowed and  read  "David  Copperfield  "  and  "Great  Ex- 
pectations," and  was  then  deep  in  "Our  Mutual 
Friend."  "The  youth  spoke  of  these  stories,"  adds 
Mr.  Adcock,  "  as  delightedly  as  a  man  might  talk  of 
the  wonders  of  a  newly  discovered  world,  and  it  made 
me  sorry  that  those  who  had  given  these  books  for 
his  use  could  never  quite  know  how  much  they  had 
given." 

Sometimes  the  men  took  the  books  just  to  read  in 
the  reading-room,  but  often  they  preferred  to  take 
them  to  their  barracks,  in  which  case  they  left  a 
small  deposit  until  the  book  was  returned.  They 
seemed  to  feel  that  if  they  had  had  twice  as  many 
books,  they  would  not  have  had  enough.  More  books 
of  the  better  kind  were  especially  needed.  Any 
amount  of  fiction  by  Kiphng,  Wells,  Bennett,  Ian 
Hay,  Barrie,  Doyle,  Hall  Caine,  Stevenson,  and  Ja- 
cobs could  have  been  used,  while  Dickens,  Scott,  and 
the  older  novelists  were  wonderfully  popular.  There 
were  also  a  surprising  number  of  more  serious  read- 
ers who  asked  for  Carlyle,  Emerson,  Green,  Lamb, 
Ruskin,  Shakespeare,  and  Tennyson  —  books  which 
frequently  could  not  be  supplied. 

"I  overtook  a  smart  young  soldier  one  afternoon 
on  the  fringe  of  one  of  the  base  camps,"  continues 


BRITISH  Y.M.C.A.  LIBRARIES         227 

Mr.  Adcock.  "He  limped  slightly,  and  as  we  walked 
together  I  noticed  a  copy  of  Browning  sticking  out  of 
his  breast  pocket,  and  remarked  upon  it.  It  seemed 
he  had  been  for  three  weeks  in  the  convalescent  part 
of  the  camp  with  a  badly  sprained  ankle,  and  had 
profited  by  that  leisure  to  read  for  the  first  time  the 
whole  of  Keats  and  Wordsworth,  and  was  just  begin- 
ning Browning.  He  came  from  Manchester  and  was, 
in  civil  life,  a  musician.  'But,'  he  laughed,  'you  can't 
bring  a  'cello  with  you  on  active  service,  so  I  have 
fallen  back  more  on  reading.  I  was  always  fond  of  it, 
but  I've  read  more  in  the  ten  months  I  have  been 
here  than  in  any  ten  months  at  home.'  He  drew 
the  Browning  from  his  pocket,  and  I  noticed  the 
Y.M.C.A.  stamp  on  it.  'Yes,'  he  said,  'they've  got 
some  fine  little  libraries  in  the  huts.  They  are  a  god- 
send to  the  chaps  here.  But  I  have  n't  been  able  to 
come  across  a  Shelley  or  a  Francis  Thompson  yet.  I 
would  like  to  read  Thompson.*" 

Of  the  older  volunteer  workers  who  had  given  not 
only  their  time,  but  also  their  automobiles  to  the 
Y.M.C.A.,  Mr.  Adcock  saw  three  who  had  sons 
up  in  the  trenches,  and  two  who  had  sons  lying 
in  the  soldiers'  cemeteries  behind  the  lines.  "It  is 
not  possible  for  all  of  us  to  do  as  much  as  that,'* 
said  he.  "Most  of  us  have  neither  time  nor  cars 
to  give.  But  it  is  possible  for  all  of  us  to  do  some- 
thing to  lighten  the  lives  of  our  fighting  men,  and 
since  I  have  seen  what  pleasure  and  solace  they  get 
from  them,  I  know  that  even  if  we  give  nothing  but 


228  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

books,  we  have  given  infinitely  more  than  our  money 
could  buy." 

"The  problem  of  dealing  with  conditions,  at  such 
a  time,  and  under  existing  circumstances,  at  the  rest 
camps,  has  always  been  a  most  diflScult  one,'*  wrote 
General  French  from  Headquarters,  "but  the  erection 
of  huts  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
has  made  this  far  easier.  The  extra  comfort  thereby 
afforded  to  the  men,  and  the  opportunities  for  read- 
ing and  writing,  have  been  of  incalculable  service." 

The  providing  of  free  stationery  in  all  its  build- 
ings, at  an  outlay  averaging  a  thousand  pounds  per 
week,  was  a  beneficent  and  highly  salutary  phase  of 
the  work.  The  expense  was  more  than  justified,  as 
the  letters  he  writes  mean  everything  to  the  soldier 
and  to  his  friends.  They  not  only  help  to  keep  him 
straight,  but  also  preserve  the  happy  relationship 
between  the  sender  and  the  receiver.  The  millions  of 
letters  written  on  Y.M.C.A.  paper  have  gone  far 
toward  keeping  the  recipients  reassured  by  the  reali- 
zation that  there  was  some  one  looking  after  their 
boys.  Both  Roman  Catholics  and  Jews  have  written 
grateful  letters  to  Headquarters  because  their  friends 
received  a  welcome  at  the  writing-tables  without  any 
question  of  creed.  In  view  of  all  that  the  organization 
has  done,  both  at  the  Front  and  at  home,  it  is  not 
strange  that  grateful  soldiers  interpret  the  welcome 
sign,  "You  Make  Christianity  Attractive.'* 


CHAPTER  Xni 

BRITISH  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  BOOK  SCHEME 
(EDUCATIONAL) 

Shortly  after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  three  Eng- 
lishmen, held  captive  in  the  makeshift  camp  formed 
out  of  the  buildings  attached  to  the  race-course  at 
Ruhleben,  near  Berlin,  wrote  to  their  friends  in  Great 
Britain,  asking  that  books  be  sent  them  for  purposes 
of  study. 

One  of  the  recipients  was  Mr.  (now  Sir)  Alfred  T. 
Davies,  permanent  secretary  of  the  Welsh  Depart- 
ment of  the  Board  of  Education.  He  was  so  impressed 
by  the  request  that  he  not  only  complied  immediately, 
but  set  about  organizing  a  system  of  book  supplies 
for  all  British  prisoners  of  war  interned  in  Germany. 
The  appeal  for  new  or  second-hand  books  which  he 
sent  out  met  with  a  liberal  response,  but  as  the  sta- 
tion in  life  of  the  interned  men  varied  from  that  of  a 
university  professor  to  that  of  a  jockey,  it  was  no 
light  task  to  provide  literature  suited  to  the  different 
tastes  and  capacities.  The  organization  of  the  Camp 
Education  Department,  however,  and  another  appeal 
to  the  public,  sanctioned  by  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  made  it  possible  to  forward  to 
Ruhleben  during  the  first  year  about  nine  thousand 
volumes,  which  gave  the  two  hundred  lecturers  and 


230  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

their  pupils,  gathered  from  the  four  thousand  civil- 
ians there  interned,  a  fair  library  to  draw  upon. 

With  the  approval  of  the  Foreign  OflBce  steps  were 
taken  to  extend  to  prisoners  in  other  camps  the  serv- 
ice which  had  proved  so  helpful  at  Ruhleben.  In- 
quiries conducted  through  the  British  legations  at 
The  Hague,  Copenhagen,  and  Beme,  and  through 
the  United  States  embassies  at  Berlin,  Vienna,  Sofia, 
and  Constantinople,  brought  applications  from  vari- 
ous prison  camps  in  Holland,  Germany,  Austria, 
Turkey,  Bulgaria,  and  Switzerland.  All  these  re- 
quests were  filled  from  supplies  gathered  at  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Board  of  Education. 

As  private  individuals  were  not  permitted  to  send 
books  to  prisoners  in  whom  they  were  interested,  the 
Book  Scheme  was  the  only  means  by  which  people 
in  England  could  see  that  their  friends  or  relatives 
in  German  prison  camps  were  suppUed  with  the  books 
for  which  they  had  asked.  Both  the  German  and  the 
British  censorship  held  this  organization  responsible 
for  what  went  through  its  hands.  Of  course  all  books 
on  the  war  were  barred.  In  some  camps  any  books 
containing  references  to  England  and  Englishmen 
as  champions  of  Hberty  were  badly  mutilated  or 
verboten  altogether.  Maps  were  often  torn  out  of 
books.  Few  magazines  could  be  sent,  as  most  of  them 
contained  articles  on  the  war.  Books  published  in 
neutral  countries  invariably  had  the  backs  torn  off, 
in  a  search  for  letters  or  other  prohibited  matter,  and 
sometimes  were  seriously  delayed.  But  on  the  whole 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OF  WAR     231 

the  books  arrived  in  reasonable  time,  usually  in  from 
four  or  five  weeks  to  two  months,  and  in  spite  of  all 
the  difficulties  the  organization  succeeded  in  supply- 
ing the  men  with  what  they  wanted. 

Forms  on  which  the  prisoners  could  indicate  their 
needs  were  distributed,  and  as  these  came  into  the 
main  office  (in  the  South  Kensington  Museum)  the 
titles  were  promptly  looked  up  and  the  desired  books 
forwarded.  A  postcard  was  enclosed  upon  which  the 
recipient  could  say  whether  the  book  suited  him  or 
not.  About  seventy  per  cent  of  the  returned  post- 
cards expressed  satisfaction.  A  card  index  was  kept, 
containing  a  card  for  every  man  who  had  ever  asked 
for  a  book,  with  information  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
request;  this  furnished  a  clue  to  the  prisoner's  needs 
if  he  happened,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  not  to  be 
sufficiently  specific  in  later  requests.  A  register  of 
requests,  chronologically  arranged,  something  like 
the  accession  book  of  a  library,  served  as  a  further 
clue  to  the  date  when  a  book  was  asked  for  and  when 
it  was  shipped  from  London.  Such  personal  records 
were  necessary  for  several  reasons.  In  many  instances 
the  Book  Scheme  was  the  only  source  from  which 
anxious  friends  and  relatives  could  obtain  information 
as  to  the  arrival  of  the  books.  Furthermore,  in  their 
eagerness  to  get  the  books,  prisoners  often  wrote  to 
several  people;  then,  if  they  failed  to  receive  the 
books  in  what  they  considered  a  reasonable  time, 
they  wrote  to  these  same  people  again.  All  these  com- 
munications were  turned  over  to  this  organization. 


232  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

and  the  detailed  records  made  it  possible  to  avoid 
duplication. 

In  the  matter  of  selection  the  small  and  mostly 
volmiteer  forces  depended  upon  publishers,  upon  the 
advice  of  the  editorial  stafifs  of  periodicals  dealing 
with  technical  subjects,  upon  special  departments  of 
universities,  upon  a  member  of  the  staff  of  the  British 
Museum  who  could  be  reached  by  telephone,  and 
upon  societies  and  private  individuals. 

Among  the  subjects  on  which  books  were  specially 
desired  were  agricultm-e;  art  (including  oil  and  water- 
color  painting,  pastel,  drawing  and  perspective, 
printing  and  design,  and  lettering);  architecture; 
atlases;  aviation;  biography;  Celtic  (Gaelic  and 
Welsh);  ceramics;  commerce,  finance  and  banking; 
dictionaries  and  grammars  (English  and  foreign, 
especially  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Russian);  encyclo- 
paedias; engineering  in  its  numerous  branches;  for- 
estry; handicrafts;  Hindustani;  iron  and  steel;  law; 
light-houses;  Mohammedanism;  music  of  various 
kinds;  natural  history;  navigation;  pragmatism; 
pumps;  Russian  literature;  telegraphy  and  telephony; 
trades,  and  travel. 

Some  strange  requests  were  received;  e.g.,  for 
"Stones  of  Venus,"  "Pluto's  Works,"  and  "French 
Simplified  by  Victor  Hugo."  Included  in  a  list  of 
biographies  was  Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall,"  — 
evidently,  says  the  Hbrarian,  supposed  to  be  a  sort 
of  "Rake's  Progress." 

The  object  of  the  work  was  to  save  the  British 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OF  WAR     233 

prisoners  of  war  interned  in  enemy  and  neutral  coun- 
tries from  mental  deterioration  and  to  assist  them  in 
redeeming  the  time  spent  in  captivity  (1)  by  provid- 
ing them  with  books  for  study  purposes;  (2)  by  secur- 
ing recognition  from  university  and  other  examining 
bodies  for  their  studies  during  internment;  (3)  by 
enabling  them  to  employ  their  enforced  leisure  in 
such  a  way  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  they  would  be 
better  qualified  to  fight  the  battle  of  life.  There  are 
said  to  have  been  6700  war  charities  and  160  prisoners 
of  war  charities,  but  only  one  prisoners  of  war  charity 
providing  books  for  purposes  of  study.  Thus  this 
Book  Scheme  did  not  duplicate  the  work  of  any  other 
war  organization. 

The  educational  work  of  the  Ruhleben  Camp  was 
intended  to  meet  the  requirements  of  three  classes 
of  men:  (1)  Those  whose  internment  had  interrupted 
their  preparations  for  such  examinations  as  the  Lon- 
don matriculation,  the  various  university  degrees,  or 
the  Board  of  Trade  nautical  examinations;  (2)  those 
who  had  already  entered  upon  a  commercial  or  pro- 
fessional career;  (3)  those  who  were  pursuing  some 
form  of  learning  for  learning's  sake. 

"It  will  be  a  matter  of  surprise  to  many,"  said  Sir 
Alfred  Davies  in  1918,  "to  learn  that  some  200  lec- 
turers and  teachers  and  1500  students,  organized  in 
nine  different  departments  of  study  (the  arts,  lan- 
guages, sciences,  navigation,  engineering,  music,  etc.) 
have  been  busily  at  work  in  the  camp,  and  that  there 
is  perhaps  as  much  solid  work  going  on  among  these 


284  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

civilian  victims  of  the  Great  War  as  can  be  claimed 
to-day  by  any  university  in  the  British  Empire." 

An  interesting  development  was  an  arrangement 
by  which  interned  men  who  attended  classes  might 
under  certain  conditions  secure  recognition  of  their 
work  when  they  returned  home.  The  Board  of  Trade, 
which  welcomed  the  idea  with  enthusiasm,  was  pre- 
pared, in  calculating  the  period  of  qualifying  service 
required  before  a  certificate  of  comj>etency  could  be 
obtained,  to  take  into  account  the  evidence  of  study 
during  internment,  submitted  on  a  special  form.  This 
record  form,  for  use  in  the  camps,  was  drawn  up  after 
consultation  with  various  examining  and  professional 
bodies,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  and  preserving 
authenticated  details  of  the  courses  of  study  pursued 
by  any  student  in  a  camp.  It  was  hoped  that  this 
record  might  be  of  material  benefit  to  the  men  when 
the  time  came  for  them  to  resume  their  interrupted 
careers.  Thus  a  man  who  wanted  to  become  a  mas- 
ter, mate,  first  or  second  engineer  in  the  mercantile 
marine,  skipper  or  second  hand  of  a  fishing  vessel, 
and  was  willing  to  devote  a  few  hours  a  day  to  regu- 
lar study  in  a  camp  where  there  was  systematic  in- 
struction in  navigation  and  seamanship,  could  have 
this  work  counted  toward  his  certificate. 

The  Ruhleben  Camp  started  a  library  of  its  own  on 
November  14, 1914,  with  eighty-three  books,  received 
from  the  American  Ambassador,  Mr.  Gerard,  and 
Mr.  Trinks.  According  to  Mr.  Israel  Cohen, ^  "Books, 

^  The  Ruhleben  Prison  Camp :  A  Record  of  Nineteen  Months'  Intern- 
ment (London,  Methuen,  1917),  p.  212.  , 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OF  WAR     235 

brochures,  and  maps  were  procurable  through  the 
Camp  Bookseller  (Mr.  F.  L.  Musset);  and  on  the 
walls  of  many  a  horse-box  or  in  the  passage  of  the 
stables  were  pasted  large  maps  of  the  various  theaters 
of  war,  upon  which  the  course  of  operations  was  fol- 
lowed from  day  to  day.  Many  men  also  cut  out  of 
their  papers  the  small  maps  illustrating  particular 
campaigns  and  preserved  them  for  future  reference. 
As  these  various  publications  had  to  be  ordered 
through  the  Camp  Bookseller  and  passed  through  the 
hands  of  the  military  authorities,  the  latter  were  able 
to  prevent  the  entry  of  any  printed  matter  that  was 
considered  dangerous."  Books  were  also  received  from 
the  Seamen's  Mission  at  Hamburg  and  from  Mudie's 
Library.  By  July,  1915,  there  were  two  thousand 
English  and  American  magazines,  three  hundred  Ger- 
man books,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty  French  books. 
On  the  average  two  hundred  and  fifty  books  a  day 
were  taken  out.  As  there  was  a  printer  in  the  camp 
it  was  decided  to  print  a  catalogue.  The  demands 
made  upon  the  enlarged  library  were  varied  and  curi- 
ous, but  nearly  all  could  be  supplied  from  the  shelves. 
Books  in  forty-nine  languages  were  asked  for  and  were 
forthcoming.  Dictionaries  and  books  on  electricity 
were  constantly  in  demand.  One  man  wanted  a  book 
on  tropical  agriculture;  another  needed  a  manual  on 
cotton  spinning;  while  a  third  asked  for  Schlum- 
berger's  "Siege  de  Constantinople."  Another  wrote 
for,  and  received  through  the  generosity  of  the  pub- 
lisher, a  beautiful  work  on  the  "Sculptured  Tombs  of 


236  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Rome,"  a  subject  on  which  he  was  planning  to  make 
a  personal  contribution  after  his  release. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  war  the  circulating  library 
at  Ruhleben  numbered  eight  thousand  volumes  and 
there  was  a  reference  collection  of  two  thousand 
volumes.  Holzmunden  had  three  thousand  books  at 
the  signing  of  the  Armistice.  "The  library,"  writes  a 
prisoner  at  the  latter  camp,  "gave  special  facilities 
to  officers  taking  part  in  the  debates  of  the  *  Wrang- 
lers,' formed  for  the  free  discussion  of  subjects  of 
vital  interest,  and  problems  likely  to  confront  us 
after  the  war." 

Some  R.N.V.R.  men  at  Doeberitz  sent  in  a  com- 
prehensive request  for  "The  Agricultural  Holding 
Act,  a  Motor  Manual,  Practical  Navigation,  Bee- 
keeping and  Furniture  (periods  and  styles)."  "We 
are  working  in  stone-quarries  with  some  Frenchmen," 
wrote  a  private,  "  and  should  like  to  be  able  to  talk 
to  them  more."  "I  can  speak  Russian  pretty  fair, 
but  not  in  their  grammar,"  wrote  a  Jack  Tar.  A  certi- 
fied teacher  confessed:  "  No  one  knows  better  than  I 
myself  how  I  am  deteriorating,"  and  asked  for  and 
received  books  on  educational  psychology,  so  as  to 
catch  up  again  with  the  trend  of  thought  in  his  pro- 
fession. The  aim  of  the  organization  was  to  provide 
every  prisoner  with  exactly  the  book  or  books  he 
might  desire  or  need,  pn  any  subject  or  in  any  lan- 
guage. 

"No  dumping  allowed,"  was  a  rule  applied  alike 
to  donors  and  recipients,  according  to  Sir  Alfred 


Bu  S/teciul  I'eriiiis.<io>i  of  the  Cenluri/  Co. 


THE  AIMLESS  AND  EMPTY  EXISTENCE  OF  PRISONERS  OF  WAR 
From  a  sketch  by  Raemaekers 


lirown  4r  Lkiwaon 


IN  SOME  PRISON  CAMPS  THE  BARBER  SUPPLIED  HIS 
PATRONS  WITH  ILLUSTRATED  PAPERS 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OF  WAR     237 

Davies.  To  the  appeal,  "Feed  us  with  books,"  was 
added  a  request  to  prospective  contributors  to  send 
first  a  list  of  books,  with  their  dates  of  publication, 
in  order  that  the  managers  of  the  Book  Scheme  might 
mark  those  that  were  likely  to  be  of  use.  In  this  way 
they  were  able  to  protect  themselves  from  people  who 
wanted  to  clear  out  their  libraries  and  rid  themselves 
of  old  novels  and  old  school-books.  As  it  was,  they 
received  a  constant  supply  of  useful  historical,  tech- 
nical, geographical,  and  other  books,  all  of  them  in 
good  condition  and  many  quite  new.  A  book-plate, 
giving  the  name  of  the  donor  and  stating  that  the 
book  was  provided  through  the  agency  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  was  placed  in  each  volume. 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  when  you  are  engrossed  in 
a  good  book  there  is  a  chance  of  your  forgetting  your 
condition  and  imagining  yourself  a  free  man,"  wrote 
a  British  prisoner  of  war  to  a  friend  in  London.  Cajh 
tivorum  animis  dent  libri  libertatem. 

One  prisoner,  desperate  with  his  weary  months  of 
captivity,  wrote,  "I  shall  go  mad  unless  I  get  some- 
thing to  read,"  and  his  case  is  typical  of  many  others. 
In  support  of  Sir  Alfred  Davies's  call  for  either  money 
or  books,  a  correspondent  wrote  to  the  London  Times 
an  appeal  on  behalf  of  the  British  prisoners  of  war. 
"You  have  fed,  you  are  feeding  their  bodies,"  said  he. 
"To  the  prisoners  in  Germany  you  are  sending  bread, 
which  they  badly  need,  as  well  as  sardines  and  hams 
and  jams  and  toothpowder  and  monthly  magazines 
and  other  luxuries  of  life  which  they  keenly  appreci- 


238  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ate.  But  prisoners  cannot  live  by  bread  alone,  and  not 
even  a  pot  of  marmalade  or  a  thrilling  story  by  X  or 
Y  can  fill  the  void.  They  want  food  for  the  mind  as 
well  as  for  the  stomach  and  the  imagination,  and, 
unless  their  minds  are  to  decay,  they  must  have  it. . . . 
The  months  or  years  of  internment  need  not  be  wasted 
time.  The  calamity  may  even  be  turned  to  good 
account  (as  other  calamities  incident  to  warfare  are 
being  every  day)  thanks  to  the  scheme  which  enables 
enforced  leisure  to  be  filled  with  profitable  study.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  only  a  question  of  providing  the  excellent 
cure  for  boredom  known  as  'getting  your  teeth'  into 
a  course  of  study.  It  is  more  even  than  enabling  the 
younger  prisoners  to  continue  their  education  and 
keep  up  in  the  race  with  their  more  fortunate  coevals. 
The  iron  has  entered  into  the  soul  of  many,  or  most, 
of  these  men.  To  provide  them  with  the  means  of 
hard  work  for  the  mind  may  be  to  do  more  than 
enable  them  to  win  some  profit  out  of  calamity.  It 
may  be  to  affect  their  whole  attitude  toward  life,  the 
future  tone  and  temper  of  their  minds  and  spirits. 
It  may  be  to  bring  them  back  to  us  full  of  vitality  and 
gladness,  not  embittered  and  despairing;  to  save  for 
cheerfulness  and  happy,  hopeful  work  in  the  world 
what  else  might  have  been  irremediably  lost.  Of  all 
the  existing  schemes  for  the  relief  of  prisoners,  mili- 
tary and  civil,  this  is  surely  the  most  beneficent." 

"It  is  not  a  mere  provision  of  recreation,"  wrote 
Professor  Gilbert  Murray.  "Recreation  is  important, 
no  doubt,  but  it  is  supplied  without  much  difficulty 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OF  WAR     239 

wherever  a  number  of  young  Britons  are  gathered 
together.  The  Scheme  is  a  plan  for  providing  interest- 
ing and  purposeful  occupation  to  men  for  whom  such 
occupation  is  a  matter  of  vital  necessity.  There  are 
thousands  of  our  captive  fellow  countrymen  who  can 
face  death  and  endure  suffering  with  almost  incredible 
fortitude,  but  may  be  unable  to  resist  the  slow  de- 
moralization of  prison  life  with  no  steady  purpose  to 
look  forward  to  and  no  distraction  to  make  them  for- 
get their  food-buckets  and  their  jailers." 

A  letter  of  appreciation  signed  by  some  eighty  men 
of  letters  was  presented  February  27,  1917,  to  the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Education,  the  Right  Hon- 
orable H.  A.  L.  Fisher,  M.P.  "That  some  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  books,"  it  said,  "among  them  the  latest  and 
best  works  in  a  variety  of  languages  and  on  a  great 
number  of  subjects  —  the  arts  and  sciences,  tech- 
nology, navigation,  commerce,  and  various  industries 
—  should  have  been  collected  or  purchased  and  dis- 
tributed gratis  to  the  recipients,  and  without  any 
charge  to  the  Public  Exchequer,  is  a  work  so  merito- 
rious that  we  feel  it  should  not  be  allowed  to  pass 
without  some  acknowledgment  on  our  part.  The  fact 
that  it  forms  no  part  of  the  ordinary  activities  of  a 
Government  department,  but  is  noncombatant  serv- 
ice of  an  original  character  in  connection  with  the 
war,  which  has  been  voluntarily  initiated  and  suc- 
cessfully carried  through,  in  addition  to  their  ordi- 
nary duties  and  in  the  face  of  serious  diflSculties,  by 
civil   servants  and   other  voluntary  helpers,   only 


240  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

serves,  in  our  view,  to  enhance  its  value  as  well  as 
to  increase  our  sense  of  indebtedness,  which  extends 
both  to  the  oflBcers  and  helpers  referred  to  as  well  as 
to  the  Board  of  Education,  which,  by  providing  the 
requisite  accommodation,  has  made  the  enterprise 
possible." 

There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the  appreciation  of 
the  work  from  the  camps,  from  the  relatives  of  pris- 
oners, and  from  both  the  Army  and  Navy.  The  Camp 
Librarian  at  Doeberitz  wrote  that  since  early  in  1915 
they  had  had  a  splendid  general  library,  but  that  they 
had  lacked  educational  books  until  application  had 
been  made  to  the  British  Prisoners  of  War  Book 
Scheme.  He  added  that  since  then  there  had  been  no 
case  where  an  expressed  want  had  not  been  supplied, 
immaterial  of  what  branch  of  trade  or  study  was 
concerned.  "I  can  assure  you  there  will  be  many  a 
man  who  will  leave  captivity  better  educated  than 
he  entered  it,  thanks  to  your  scheme  of  sending  out 
books,"  was  the  word  from  Cassel. 

By  September,  1917,  200  camps  had  been  sup- 
plied with  books,  for  which  6500  requests  had  been 
received  from  prisoners.  The  number  of  parcels  sent 
out  in  response  to  such  requests  approximated  7500, 
containing  43,700  volumes.  The  stock  on  the  shelves 
at  South  Kensington  averaged  at  least  12,000  vol- 
umes. The  cost  was  about  £250,  five  sixths  of  which 
is  represented  by  purchases  of  books. 

In  all,  six  hundred  camps  and  internment  bases 
were  reached  by  books  in  fifty-two  languages,  includ- 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OF  WAR       241 

ing  difiFerent  East  Indian  dialects,  Gaelic  (both  Irish 
and  Scotch),  Chinese  and  Japanese,  Maori,  and 
Esperanto.  The  books  were  not  in  every  case  gifts. 
Some  oflBcers  could  afford  to  pay  for  them,  and  did, 
often  donating  them  later  to  the  camp  library. 

Bishop  Bury,  who  visited  the  camp  at  Ruhleben 
officially,  said  that  there  was  so  much  studying  going 
on  that  it  deserved  to  be  called  the  University  of 
Ruhleben.  The  best  idea  of  the  intellectual  side  of 
life  there  can  be  had  from  the  volume  edited  by 
Douglas  Sladen:  "In  Ruhleben;  Letters  from  a  Pris- 
oner to  his  Mother"  (London,  Hurst  &  Blackett, 
1917).  The  writer  of  the  letters  is  an  anonymous 
young  university  undergraduate  of  the  type  respon- 
sible for  the  spirit  of  Ruhleben.  On  the  second  day 
in  camp  he  was  introduced  into  a  little  group  which 
read  Bergson*s  "Le  Rire"  under  the  most  extraordi- 
nary conditions.  He  taught  an  intermediate  French 
class,  the  pupils  ranging  from  a  sailor  to  a  graduate 
of  Aberdeen  University.  With  a  few  comrades  he  read 
Schiller's  plays  and  by  himself  worked  through  the 
"  Thesetetus  "  of  Plato.  He  also  helped  a  couple  of 
men  with  some  elementary  Latin  and  was  planning 
to  take  one  of  them  in  Greek. 

Some  of  the  London  newspapers  occasionally  found 
their  way  into  the  camp.  How  they  got  there  no  one 
knew  officially,  but  their  much-bethumbed  and  ragged 
appearance  after  they  had  made  the  round  of  the 
camp  showed  how  welcome  was  current  news  of  the 
outside  world.  Mr.  Israel  Cohen  says  that  up  to  April, 


242  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

1915,  the  Berliner  Zeitung  am  Mittag  was  the  sole 
oflScial  channel  of  information  as  to  current  events. 
When  newspapers  were  used  as  wrappings  of  parcels 
sent  to  prisoners  they  were  rigorously  removed  by 
the  guards  at  the  parcels  oflBce  before  the  parcels 
were  given  to  the  addressees.  But  in  the  summer  of 
1915  the  authorities  relaxed  and  permitted  the  sale 
of  the  Berliner  TagehlatU  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  the 
Berliner  lUustrierte  Zeitung,  and  the  Woche. 

The  interned  men  published  a  magazine,  In  Ruhle- 
hen  Camp,  in  which  were  reflected  the  various  cur- 
rents of  thought  among  the  prisoners.  One  Philistine 
sneered  about  every  one  wanting  to  learn  several 
languages  at  once.  "I  do  not  suppose,"  said  he, 
"there  is  a  single  man  in  the  camp  who  cannot  ask 
you  how  you  feel,  how  you  felt  yesterday,  in  half  a 
dozen  different  languages,  but  I  doubt  if  there  are 
more  than  ten  who  can  say  what  is  wrong  with  them 
in  three."  The  Debating  Society  discussed  such  sub- 
jects as  "Resolved,  that  concentration  camps  are  an 
essentially  retrogressive  feature  of  warfare";  "That 
bachelors  be  taxed"  (the  meeting  deciding  whole- 
heartedly that  bachelorhood  was  enough  of  a  tax 
itself,  since  they  had  lived  in  an  enforced  state  of 
bachelorhood  from  the  opening  of  the  camp);  "That 
the  metric  system  be  introduced  into  Great  Britain," 
which  fell  through  because  no  speaker  could  be  found 
to  oppose  it. 

The  Armistice  brought  up  the  question  of  what  to 
do  with  the  books.  This  is  being  solved  by  turning 


BOOKS  FOR  PRISONERS  OP  WAR       243 

over  those  which  are  now  arriving  from  the  aban- 
doned camps  to  the  Central  Library  for  Students. 
This  is  an  organization  started  since  the  war,  to  sup- 
ply books  for  further  study,  free  of  charge,  to  students 
who  cannot  afford  to  buy  them  for  themselves  and 
cannot  borrow  them  from  a  near-by  public  library. 
In  some  cases  even  the  transportation  is  paid  for  by 
the  Library.  The  books  may  be  kept  as  long  as  three 
months,  and  if  a  group  asks  for  a  large  quantity,  as  is 
often  the  case,  they  may  have  as  many  as  they  wish. 
The  Central  Library  is  also  helping  the  War  Office 
by  furnishing  some  of  the  books  needed  by  the  soldier 
students  in  the  occupied  territory  who  are  taking  the 
Government's  educational  courses. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
BRITISH  MILITARY  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES 

In  most  British  hospitals  during  the  first  years  of  the 
war  there  was  no  general  supervision  of  the  books 
apportioned  to  the  various  wards.  The  overworked 
nurses  did  what  they  could  to  keep  them  in  order, 
but  there  was  no  central  control  and  no  system  of 
exchange  between  different  wards.  While  one  ward 
might  have  an  oversupply  of  Nat  Goulds  and  no 
copies  of  Conan  Doyle,  the  neighboring  ward  might 
Lave  a  surplus  of  Conan  Doyle  with  an  insistent  call 
for  Nat  Gould,  which  could  not  be  met.  The  nursing 
staff  was  much  too  busy  to  even  things  up. 

In  August,  1917,  Lady  Brassey  initiated  a  system 
of  library  control.  She  visited  personally  a  number  of 
the  leading  military  hospitals  in  the  London  com- 
mand and  secured  the  approval  of  a  plan  for  install- 
ing librarians.  The  books  found  in  the  different  hos- 
pitals were  catalogued  and  were  distributed  to  the 
wards  on  an  equal  basis.  Worthless  and  worn-out 
books  were  discarded  and  sold  for  old  paper  at  the 
high  English  rate  of  thirteen  pounds  per  ton.  Pla- 
cards were  posted  and  the  neighborhood  circularized 
for  gifts. 

"The  initial  steps  of  organizing  hospital  libraries 
are  the  hardest  in  most  cases,"  wrote  Lady  Brassey, 
"as  you  are  looked  upon  with  suspicion  as  a  busybody 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES       245 

who  wants  to  get  a  footing  in  the  Field  hospital.  .  .  . 
I  don't  blame  the  C.O.'s  and  matrons,  as  I  know  how 
they  are  pestered  with  women  offering  *to  help  the 
dear  men.'  The  dear  men,  I  know,  very  often  wish 
those  kind,  well-meaning  ladies  back  in  their  own 
homes,  to  put  it  mildly.  However,  after  a  little  talk, 
the  C.O.'s  usually  realize  that  I  am  there  to  help  the 
men  and  not  to  please  myself.  They  usually  begin  by 
telling  me,  that  in  this  particular  hospital,  the  men 
don't  like  reading,  or  that  the  men  have  an  ample 
supply.  I  ignore  those  remarks  and  proceed  to  tell 
him  very  shortly  about  the  work  of  the  War  Library. 
He  then  usually  rings  for  a  matron  —  in  some  cases 
to  protect  himself;  in  others,  because  he  is  getting 
interested  and  sees  that  the  hospital  may  be  bene- 
fited.'* 

At  the  Second  London  General  Hospital,  Chelsea, 
Lady  Brassey  was  given  the  use  of  an  empty  school- 
house,  which  she  fitted  up  with  book-shelves,  writ- 
ing-tables, and  chairs.  In  addition  to  books  from  the 
War  Library,  there  was  a  generous  supply  of  books 
from  various  sources.  A  general  catalogue  was  made 
of  all  the  books  in  the  hospital  and  a  separate  one  for 
each  ward.  After  a  time.  Lady  Brassey  became  doubt- 
ful as  to  whether  the  separate  catalogue  for  each 
ward  was  worth  while,  as  the  men  who  were  able  to  be 
up  and  about  could  take  out  books  for  themselves 
and  the  bedridden  ones  could  be  looked  after  by  the 
librarian  or  by  some  of  the  patients,  who  are  exceed- 
ingly considerate  of  each  other.  "It's  astonishing  the 


246  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

books  the  Tommies  ask  for  —  ranging  from  Sopho- 
cles to  Nat  Gould.  I  don't  say  that  the  latter  is  not 
more  frequently  asked  for  than  the  former.  Nat 
Gould  is  very  popular,  but  they  do  like  good  reading 
to  a  very  great  extent,  and  when  a  man  is  debating  as 
to  what  he  wants  to  read,  you  can  often  persuade  him 
to  try  something  good.  What  I  enjoy  is  to  see  the  men 
coming  into  the  library  of  their  own  accord  and  look- 
ing for  a  book  to  suit  them  and  to  have  a  little  chat. 
The  picture  papers  are  a  great  delight.  Testaments 
are  very  readily  taken." 

The  Third  London  General  Hospital  at  Wands- 
worth was  opened  in  August,  1914.  It  had  two  thou- 
sand beds  and  was  one  of  the  largest  military  hospi- 
tals in  Great  Britain.  From  the  start,  the  Command- 
ing Officer  and  the  Matron  resolved  that  the  hospital 
should  be  (as  far  as  possible)  a  cheerful  memory  for 
the  patients.  Every  week-day  there  was  a  concert  at 
which  some  of  the  best  London  talent  was  provided. 
Boxing  men  and  professional  billiard  players  gave  ex- 
hibitions to  the  great  delight  of  the  patients,  and  dur- 
ing the  summer  athletic  contests  were  held.  Nor  had 
the  literary  needs  of  the  men  been  overlooked.  While 
the  supply  of  books  came  mainly  from  the  War  Li- 
brary, gifts  of  considerable  value  were  received  from 
generous  publishers  and  literary  friends.  One  of  the 
most  prized  was  a  large  box  from  Mrs.  Rudyard  Kip- 
ling. Needless  to  say  all  the  books  in  it  written  by 
her  husband  were  borrowed  from  the  shelves  within 
twenty-four  hours. 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES         247 

Each  ward  had  a  three-  or  four-shelf  bookcase.  A 
typed  and  bound  catalogue  of  the  entire  library  was 
exhibited  in  three  different  parts  of  the  hospital. 

"The  handy  cheap  editions  favored  by  the  men 
have  covers  that  possess  limitations  in  wear  and 
tear,"  writes  W.  Pett  Ridge,  honorary  librarian. 
"The  state  of  a  ninepenny  novel  after  a  month  or 
two  of  use  is  often  a  compliment  to  its  author,  and  a 
reproach  to  the  binder.  I  observe  that  Jack  London's 
novels  have  a  short  life,  and  a  busy  one.  Meredith 
Nicholson's  works,  by  reason  of  their  popularity, 
come  at  frequent  intervals  to  be  added  to  the  mound 
of  waste  paper.  The  delightful  novels  by  Ahce  Hegan 
Rice  go  from  hand  to  hand,  strenuously  recom- 
mended by  the  last  borrower.  I  transferred  (not  with- 
out reluctance)  my  own  collection  of  the  books  by 
Mr.  Dooley,  and  their  present  state  may  be  de- 
scribed as  war-worn.  The  men  love  *  Audrey'  and  all 
the  rest  from  the  great  pen  of  Mary  Johnston.  As  to 
British  authors,  affection  is  given  to  those  who  write 
books  of  adventure,  or  books  that  include  a  reference 
to  sport,  or  books  which  are  not  devoid  of  the  ele- 
ment of  humor. 

"*For  the  Lord's  sake,'  beg  most  of  my  blue-uni- 
formed customers,  'don't  you  dare  give  us  one  that 
mentions  the  war!' 

"My  own  view,  —  given  for  what  it  may  be  worth, 
—  is  that  the  patient  should  be  encouraged  to  read 
anything  likely  to  induce  a  yearning  to  get  back 
again  to  the  atmosphere  of  normal  health.  If  he  can 


248  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

be  taken,  for  an  hour,  into  a  world  where  the  women 
are  good  (but  not  too  good)  and  undeniably  beauti- 
ful; where  horses  win  races,  by  a  short  head;  where 
heroines  write  plays  that  have  an  immediate  and 
terrific  success;  where  uncles  go  to  the  colonies  for  no 
other  reason,  apparently,  than  that  of  amassing  for- 
tunes to  be  left  in  the  very  nick  of  time  to  deserving 
young  relatives  at  home,  then  the  reader  is  likely  to 
share  the  task  of  the  doctors  and  nurses,  and  deter- 
mine to  lose  no  time  in  getting  well.  A  great  tribute  to 
writers  comes  when  a  man  returns  one  of  their  books, 
alid  says:  *I'll  have  another,  if  you  don't  mind,  by 
the  self-same  party!* 

"Our  men  from  over-seas  are  the  men  for  standard 
authors.  I  have  an  idea  that  they  often,  in  the  past, 
wanted  to  read  Scott,  Dickens,  Thackeray,  and  Jane 
Austen,  but  time  and  opportunity  never  came  to- 
gether. Now,  with  the  leisure  imposed  by  hospital 
rules,  they  begin  the  task  with  eagerness.  I  received 
last  week  a  glorious  present  of  a  complete  set  of  Dick- 
ens in  the  Gadshill  edition,  —  noble  volumes,  scarlet 
bound,  and  a  delight  to  look  at  and  handle.  The  pre- 
vious owner  —  but  this  is  a  question  to  be  settled 
between  himself  and  his  Maker  —  had  not  cut  the 
pages!  To-day,  each  book  shows  evidence  of  close  at- 
tention. We  can  arrange,  if  required  to  do  so,  in  con- 
nection with  the  War  Pensions  Committee,  for  tech- 
nical works  of  a  special  character  to  be  obtained,  and 
supplied  to  men  who  wish  to  carry  on  preparation 
for  some  civil  career.  Now  and  again,  we  are  asked 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES        249 

for  one  of  the  classics.  Young  officers  demand  poetry, 
and  cannot  get  too  much  of  it;  they  read  John  Mase- 
field,  and  Henry  Newbolt,  and  Yeats.  Privately  I 
suspect  many  of  them  of  an  experiment  in  this  medi- 
um, and  an  attempt  to  set  down  in  verse  the  marvel- 
ous occurrences  and  sensations  that  have  come  to 
them,  out  Flanders  way.  I  wish  the  lads,  with  all  my 
heart,  the  best  of  luck  in  their  new  and  difficult  em- 
prise. 

"For  myself,  I  have  known  in  many  long  years  the 
pleasure  of  writing  books;  I  now  recognize  the  happi- 
ness that  can  be  found  in  circulating  them.  I  pass  on 
the  discovery  for  the  benefit  of  my  colleagues  and 
contemporaries  in  America  who  happen  to  be,  like 
myself,  past  the  fighting  age,  but  not  arrived  at  the 
years  when  one  is  content  to  fold  hands  and  do  noth- 
ing. The  work  I  do  at  the  Third  London  General 
Hospital,  trifling  contribution  as  it  is,  represents  a  joy 
to  me.  I  honestly  reUsh  every  moment  I  give  to  it." 

Of  course  not  all  the  patients  were  book-lovers; 
some,  who  were  not  in  the  habit  of  reading,  had  to  be 
coaxed.  Mr.  Ridge  tells  of  a  man  who  asked  whether 
he  could  get  "Twenty  Thousand  Leagues  under  the 
Sea."  The  book  was  found  and  brought  to  him.  "I'm 
very  glad  to  have  it,"  said  the  wounded  soldier.  "I 
began  it  twenty  years  ago.  Somebody  pinched  it 
from  me  when  I  was  halfway  through  it  and  I've 
never  had  a  chance  of  getting  to  the  end  of  it." 

"Yes  —  but  you've  read  a  large  number  of  books 
since  then,  have  n't  you?" 


250  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"Oh,  no,'*  the  man  replied,  "I  never  tried  an- 
other." 

The  Grove  Hospital  at  Tooting  was  "adopted"  by 
a  local  Baptist  church,  which  gave  as  a  beginning 
fifteen  hundred  excellent  books,  appointed  a  libra- 
rian, and  then,  doubling  its  contribution  of  books 
provided  the  necessary  bookcases  and  prepared  a 
catalogue. 

"Let  it  be  understood,"  said  Mrs.  Gaskell  in  one 
of  her  letters,  "that  the  soldier  who  has  been  at  the 
front  in  all  the  din  and  racket  cannot  possibly  read 
anything  of  a  solid  character  at  first,  even  when 
un wounded;  pictures  are  all  the  brain  can  bear. 
Hence  the  necessity  for  illustrated  papers,  the  penny 
novelette,  and  Nick  Carter  detective  stories.  They 
are  very  light  to  hold,  the  villain  always  gets  pun- 
ished, and  virtue  is  always  triumphant,  or  makes 
such  a  holy  end  that  you  cannot  regret  it!  There  are 
no  psychological  problems  and  perplexities.  Indeed, 
the  most  modem  novel,  which  deals  with  life  as  it  is 
and  lands  one  on  no  firm  ground,  is  not  popular  with 
the  mass.  A  tale  well  told  is  what  our  lads  need,  and 
if  it  is  sentimental,  so  much  the  better.  They  love 
Miss  Ethel  Dell  and  Marie  Corelli,  and  amongst  the 
boys  Ouida  is  a  great  favorite." 

A  patient  at  the  depot  of  the  British  Red  Cross 
Society  in  Genoa,  on  returning  a  book  by  Cariyle, 
said  that  he  couldn't  make  much  out  of  it  and 
warned  a  soldier  standing  near  by  to  avoid  choosing 
such  books.  "That  is  the  only  kind  of  book  I  read  in 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES      251 

English,"  the  soldier  replied;  "I  read  my  novels  in 
other  languages."  In  fact,  the  variety  of  demands 
made  upon  the  up-to-date  hospital  library  necessi- 
tates the  provision  of  all  kinds  of  books.  Especially  is 
this  true  in  convalescent  camps  and  reconstruction 
hospitals,  where  the  men  soon  weary  of  mere  stories. 
Their  recovery  is  often  expedited  by  practical  courses 
of  study  and  up-to-date  textbooks.  Particularly  do 
the  men  in  trades  and  the  professional  men  welcome 
the  good  books  on  their  special  subjects.  A  wounded 
lawyer,  with  a  long  and  tedious  fracture  case,  asked 
for  "Tarmon  on  Wills"  and  the  British  War  Library 
was  only  too  glad  to  get  it  for  him. 

How  appreciative  the  men  are  of  these  special  ef- 
forts on  their  behalf,  is  shown  by  a  letter  received  at 
the  British  War  Library,  addressed  to  "You  Gener- 
ous Folk  who  distribute  reading  matter": 

"We  are  able  to  get  literature  here  —  but  not  the 
particular  kind  I  would  choose  at  such  a  time.  Could 
you  manage  to  get  me  some  Kipling,  please!  I  cannot 
get  pay  in  hospital  to  buy  it,  and  my  parents  are  not 
in  the  position  to  get  it  for  me  —  but  I  would  love 
some  Kipling.  It  would  be  such  a  treat  after  twelve 
and  a  half  months  in  France,  with  an  eight-inch  How- 
itzer battery. 

"Perhaps  I  am  asking  for  something  that  is  too  ex- 
pensive. I  must  apologize  if  this  is  the  case.  It  oc- 
curred to  me  that  perhaps  you  might  know  of  some 
one  who  could  get  me  what  I  want. 

"I  hope  you  will  make  an  effort  —  good  people  — 


252  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

if  you  can  do  this  I  shall  forever  be  grateful  to  you. 
When  one  is  in  hospital  good  turns  are  much  more 
appreciated  than  at  other  times. 

"If  you  will  let  me  know  whether  you  are  able  to 
get  me  some  Kipling  or  not  it  will  save  me  wonder- 
ing. So  you  will  let  me  know,  won't  you  please?" 

The  following  is  from  a  patient  in  Bramshott 
Hospital : 

"The  book  you  sent  —  *Many  Adventures*  —  ar- 
rived whilst  I  was  bad  —  too  bad  to  write  you  and  let 
you  know  it  was  here  —  because  my  right  arm  has 
been  giving  me  trouble  for  the  last  few  days.  It  is  get- 
ting better  now  and  I  am  able  to  write  at  last  and 
thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  —  'a  sol- 
dier's heart!'  —  for  your  kindness. 

"I  commenced  reading  yesterday  —  being  unable 
to  do  so  before  —  and  I  am  enjoying  the  yams  im- 
mensely. Thank  you  too  for  dispatching  the  book  so 
promptly.  It  cheered  me  —  as  I  lay  abed  —  to  hear  a 
comrade  whisper,  'A  book  for  you.  Gunner.'  Guess- 
ing it  was  from  you  I  resolved  to  get  well  quickly  — 
for  I  have  looked  forward  to  some  Kipling  ever  since 
my  arrival  here. 

"If  you  wish  it,  I  will  pass  the  volume  on  when  I 
have  read  it.  But  I  would  love  to  keep  it  for  my  own 
—  and  I  would  be  only  too  willing  to  lend  it  to  any 
comrade  who  will  read  it. 

"Thank  you  —  I  mean  that.  Thank  you  very 
much  indeed,  you  have  cheered  up  a  Tommy.'* 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES       253 

THE  MILITARY  HOSPITAL,  ENDELL  STREET,  LONDON 

.  The  Military  Hospital  in  Endell  Street,  London,  is 
the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  England  officered  entirely 
by  women.  In  the  spring  of  1915,  when  preparations 
were  being  made  for  the  reception  of  the  wounded 
sent  back  from  the  front,  two  well-known  authors. 
Miss  Elizabeth  Robins  and  Miss  Beatrice  Harraden, 
were  invited  to  act  as  honorary  librarians.  They  were 
asked  to  collect  suitable  books  and  magazines,  and  by 
personal  interviews  with  the  soldiers  to  encourage 
reading.  Their  task  was  to  help  the  men  through  the 
long  hours  of  illness  by  providing  reading  matter  that 
would  keep  them  interested  and  amused.  Miss  Har- 
raden, in  an  article  published  in  the  Cornhill  Maga- 
zine, writes  that  from  the  outset  it  seemed  an  inter- 
esting project,  but  nothing  like  so  stimulating  and 
gratifying  as  it  proved  to  be.  It  has  shown  the  truth 
of  the  maxim  that  reading  is  to  the  mind  what  medi- 
cine is  to  the  body. 

The  two  women  began  their  task  by  writing  to 
their  publisher  friends,  who  generously  sent  large 
consignments  of  fiction,  travel,  and  biography,  with 
hundreds  of  magazines.  Authors  also  willingly  came 
to  their  aid.  A  dignified  and  imposing  bookcase,  pre- 
sented by  a  lady,  was  placed  in  the  recreation  room 
as  an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the  official  existence 
of  a  library.  Other  bookcases  followed  and  were  soon 
filled.  The  hospital  was  suddenly  opened  and  men 
arrived  from  the  front  while  the  librarians  were 


254  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"still  engaged  in  the  heavy  task  of  sorting  and  re- 
jecting literally  shoals  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
books."  It  must  be  confessed  that  some  of  the  con- 
tributions aroused  the  suspicion  that  the  donors  had 
said  to  themselves,  "Here  is  a  grand  opportunity 
of  getting  rid  of  all  our  old,  dirty,  heavy  book  en- 
cumbrances!"—  and  Miss  Harraden  remarks  that 
she  does  not  recall  ever  having  been  so  dirty  or  so 
indignant.  But  this  was  offset  by  the  generosity  and 
understanding  of  the  many  people  who  sent  new 
books,  or  money  with  which  to  buy  the  much-needed 
volumes. 

It  was  early  decided  to  have  no  red  tape.  The  book- 
cases were  left  unlocked  at  all  times  and  the  men  were 
encouraged  to  go  to  the  shelves  and  pick  out  what 
they  liked.  The  librarians  took  books  to  the  patients 
who  were  confined  to  their  beds.  After  various  experi- 
ments. Miss  Harraden  and  Miss  Robins  divided  the 
wards  between  them  and  made  the  rounds  with  note- 
book in  hand,  finding  out  from  each  soldier  whether 
he  cared  to  read  and  if  so  what  kind  of  books  he  was 
likely  to  want.  This  mental  probing  had  to  be  done 
without  worrying  the  patient,  for  in  some  cases  the 
thought  of  a  book  was  apparently  more  terrifying 
than  the  idea  of  a  bomb.  In  such  instances,  a  smoke 
served  as  a  substitute  for  reading,  to  which,  generally 
speaking,  it  was  a  natural  concomitant. 

By  carrying  them  stationery,  writing  their  letters, 
sending  their  telegrams  or  cables,  posting  their  par- 
cels, and  doing  many  other  small  kindnesses,  in  addi- 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES      255 

tion  to  supplying  them  with  books,  the  librarians 
soon  made  friends  with  the  patients  and  became 
acquainted  with  their  tastes  and  preferences.  "We 
made  a  point  of  never  being  dismayed  by  any  de- 
mand whatsoever,"  says  Miss  Harraden,  "and  dis- 
pensed books  in  French  and  Japanese  and  Sanscrit 
and  Spanish  with  equal  calmness  of  demeanor.  We 
had  several  studying  for  examinations,  amongst  them 
a  Canadian  reading  up  for  his  final  in  Law,  and  a 
young  fellow  coaching  himself  up  for  the  London 
Matriculation.  Others  learned  shorthand.  Others 
read  books  on  banking.  Several  studied  wireless 
telegraphy,  and  one  of  them  came  back  later  on  to 
say  that  he  had  finished  his  course  after  leaving 
Endell  Street,  and  got  a  post.  We  got  the  weekly 
technical  papers  for  the  men,  and  they  looked  for- 
ward greatly  to  the  advent  of  their  particular  journal. 
Probably  nothing  gave  them  more  pleasure  than  this 
as  the  attention  seemed  so  personal." 

In  order  to  be  sure  that  the  Canadian  papers  which 
were  supplied  by  the  Canadian  Red  Cross  or  the 
Canadian  Pacific  R.  R.  were  properly  distributed,  care 
was  taken  to  find  out  from  which  town  each  Canadian 
came.  In  the  same  way  the  Ubrarians  tried  to  look 
after  the  Australians  and  New  Zealanders.  If  there 
was  a  Dane  or  a  Swede  in  the  hospital  they  wrote  to 
the  Danish  or  Swedish  legation,  asking  for  papers  for 
him  and  suggesting  that  someone  be  sent  to  visit 
him.  For  a  Roumanian  who  was  in  great  distress 
over  the  fate  of  his  parents,  they  were  able  to  get 


256  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

direct  information  by  means  of  a  telegram  sent  by 
the  Roumanian  Minister.  From  the  beginning  the 
doctors  enlisted  the  services  of  the  librarians  and 
recommended  to  their  care  patients  who  appeared  to 
need  particular  sympathy  and  consideration.  It  was 
a  common  occurrence  for  one  of  the  medical  staff  to 
proffer  a  request  that  Private  Jones  be  specially 
catered  for,  or  Corporal  Smith  be  encouraged  to 
occupy  his  mind  during  the  day  so  that  he  might 
sleep  at  night,  —  and  give  his  neighbors  a  chance  of 
sleeping  likewise. 

Often  a  man  asked  to  have  a  book  waiting  for  him 
after  an  operation,  so  that  he  might  begin  to  read  it 
as  soon  as  possible  in  order  to  forget  the  pain. 

Some  of  the  patients  had  never  learned  to  read; 
with  one  exception,  these  men  were  miners.  Some  who 
were  not  naturally  readers  acquired  the  reading  habit 
while  in  the  hospital;  many  when  well  enough  to  be- 
come out-patients  asked  permission  for  continued  use 
of  the  library.  It  was  a  source  of  great  pleasure  to  the 
librarians  to  see  old  patients  stroll  into  the  recrea- 
tion-room and  pick  out  for  themselves  books  by  au- 
thors with  whom  they  had  become  acquainted  in 
their  early  days  at  the  hospital. 

A  glance  through  the  librarians'  notebooks  shows 
the  type  of  popular  reading  chosen  by  the  patients. 
The  following  list,  compiled  by  taking  the  order- 
books  at  random,  but  the  entries  consecutively,  gives 
some  idea  of  the  result  of  the  pilgrimages  from  bed- 
side to  bedside,  through  the  different  wards: 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES       257 

One  of  Nat  Gould's  novels. 

Regiments  at  the  Front. 

Bums's  Poems. 

A  book  on  bird  life. 

The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii. 

Strand  Magazine. 

Strand  Magazine. 

Wide  World  Magazine. 

The  Spectator. 

A  scientific  book. 

Review  of  Reviews. 

By  the  Wish  of  a  Woman  (Marchmont). 

One  of  Rider  Haggard's. 

Marie  Corelli. 

Nat  Gould. 

Rider  Haggard. 

Nat  Gould. 

Nat  Gould. 

Nat  Gould. 

A  good  detective  story. 

Something  to  make  you  laugh. 

Strand  Magazine. 

Adventure  story. 

A  Tale  of  Two  Cities. 

Gil  Bias. 

Browning's  Poems. 

Tolstoi's  Resurrection. 

Sexton  Blake. 

Handy  Andy  (Lover). 

Kidnapped. 

Treasure  Island. 

Book  about  rose  growing. 

Montezuma's  Daughter  (Haggard). 

The  Prisoner  of  Zenda. 

Macaulay's  Essays. 


258  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  Magnetic  North  (Robins). 

Nat  Gould. 

Sexton  Blake. 

Modern  high  explosives. 

Dawn  (Haggard). 

Wild  animals. 

Book  on  horse-breaking. 

Radiography. 

The  popular  periodicals  played  a  great  part  in  this 
work  with  the  wounded  soldiers,  The  Strand,  The 
Windsor^  The  Red,  PearsorCsy  The  Wide  World,  and 
John  Bull,  which  the  average  British  soldier  looks 
upon  as  a  sort  of  gospel,  being  most  in  demand.  The 
very  sight  of  John  BulTs  well-known  cover  proved 
cheering  to  new  arrivals  from  the  trenches;  even  if 
too  ill  to  read  it,  they  seemed  to  like  to  have  it  near 
them,  ready  for  the  moment  when  returning  strength 
should  give  them  the  incentive  to  take  a  glance  at  its 
pages.  Some  of  the  soldiers  had  decided  predilections 
for  particular  magazines  and  would  not  look  at  any 
but  their  pet  publications.  Miss  Harraden  tells  of  one 
man  who  confined  himself  entirely  to  Blackwood's 
and  preferred  a  back  number  of  that  magazine  to  the 
current  number  of  any  upstart  rival.  Another  was  in- 
terested only  in  the  Review  of  Reviews,  while  a  third 
remained  exclusively  loyal  to  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
"Others  have  asked  only  for  wretched  little  rags 
which  one  would  wish  to  see  perish  off  the  face  of  the 
earth.  But  as  time  has  gone  on,  these  have  been  less 
and  less  asked  for  and  their  place  has  been  gradually 
taken  by  the  Sphere,  the  Graphic,  the  Tatler,  the  lUus- 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES  ,    259 

trated  London  News,  and  the  Sketch  —  another  in- 
stance of  a  better  class  of  literature  being  welcomed 
and  accepted  if  put  within  easy  reach.  In  our  case  this 
has  been  made  continuously  possible  by  friends  who 
have  given  subscriptions  for  both  monthly  and  weekly 
numbers,  and  by  others  who  send  in  their  back 
numbers  in  batches,  and  by  the  publishers,  who  never 
fail  us." 

The  experience  in  the  matter  of  book  selection  at 
the  Military  Hospital  bears  out  that  of  the  secreta- 
ries of  the  War  Library.  It  was  found  necessary  to 
invest  in  a  great  many  detective  stories,  as  well  as 
books  by  Charles  Garvice,  Oppenheim,  and  Nat 
Gould,  for  large  numbers  of  men  would  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  else.  No  matter  how  badly  off  a  wounded 
man  might  be,  the  suggestion  of  a  book  by  his  favorite 
author  would  often  bring  a  smile  to  his  face,  with 
perhaps  the  whispered  words:  "A  Nat  Gould  —  ready 
for  when  I'm  better." 

The  men  who  would  read  nothing  but  good  litera- 
ture were  by  no  means  a  negligible  quantity.  If  one 
man  was  reading  Nat  Gould's  "Jockey  Jack"  —  a 
great  favorite  —  very  likely  the  man  in  the  next  bed 
was  reading  Shakespeare,  or  "The  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress," or  Shelley,  or  Meredith,  or  Conrad,  or  a  vol- 
ume of  Everyman's  Encyclopedia.  Six  subscriptions 
to  Mudie's  were  taken  out,  and  were  a  great  help. 
If  there  was  a  particular  patient  who  really  had 
a  passion  for  reading,  read  quickly,  and  wanted  all 
the  up-to-date  books,  a  subscription  was  set  aside 


260  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

for  his  use  and  his  book  changed  as  often  as  he  wished. 
In  this  way  many  educated  men  were  kept  satisfied 
and  happy.  They  appreciated  the  personal  considera- 
tion and  made  grateful  use  of  their  privileges. 

Curiosity  prompted  an  inquiry  as  to  why  a  certain 
reader  who  seemed  most  unpromising  should  ask  for 
"The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii."  It  turned  out  that  he 
had  seen  the  story  in  a  picture  theater.  He  became 
riveted  to  the  book  until  he  had  finished  it,  and 
passed  it  on  to  his  neighbor  as  a  real  find.  Another 
soldier  who  had  been  introduced  through  film-land  to 
"Much  Ado  about  Nothing"  asked  not  only  for  that, 
but  for  several  other  volumes  of  Shakespeare. 

The  New  Zealanders  and  Australians  were  always 
keen  on  books  about  England.  They  also  asked  for 
their  own  poets  and  for  Bushranger  stories. 

Although  the  librarians  never  attempted  to  force 
good  books  on  the  soldiers,  they  took  pains  to  have 
them  within  reach.  They  found  that  when  the  men 
once  began  on  a  better  class  of  literature  they  did  not 
ordinarily  retmn  to  the  old  stuff,  which  had  formerly 
constituted  their  whole  range  of  reading.  Miss  Harra- 
den  believes  that  the  average  soldier  reads  rubbish 
because  he  has  had  no  one  to  tell  him  what  to  read. 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  has  lifted  many  of  the  pa- 
tients in  this  hospital  to  a  higher  plane  of  reading, 
from  which  they  have  looked  down  with  something  like 
scorn  on  their  former  favorites.  In  more  ways  than 
one,  "Treasure  Island"  has  been  a  discovery  for  the 
soldiers,  and  an  unspeakable  boon  to  the  librarians. 


Britifh  OJicial  rholograph$ 

IN  THE  "halls  of  GLORY,"  AS  THE  BASE  HOSPITALS 
HAVE  BEEN  CALLED 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES      261 

"One  of  the  most  satisfactory  sides  of  our  work," 
Miss  Harraden  says,  "was  guiding  the  taste  of  these 
young  boys  of  eighteen  or  nineteen,  often  very  young 
for  their  age,  very  susceptible  to  wholesome  influence, 
very  clean  hearted  and  simple.  They  have  gladly 
renounced  their  horrid  little  badly  printed  rubbish 
and  have  adored  the  people  they  have  been  intro- 
duced to  —  Henty  and  Strang  and  Kingston,  and 
then  Stevenson  and  Dumas  and  Dickens.  It  has  been 
an  immense  pleasure  to  look  after  them  and  to  know 
that  a  joy  in  good  books  has  been  planted  in  their 
minds.  Some  of  them  have  come  back  or  written  to 
report  that  all  is  well  with  their  reading  habits, 
and  also  that  they  are  now  buying  books  of  their 
own. 

"We  have  had  many  visits  and  numberless  letters 
from  former  readers.  We  have  often  had  letters  from 
the  Front  from  strangers  in  the  trenches  who  have 
heard  of  the  Library  from  their  comrades  and  have 
been  emboldened  to  write  for  a  book  or  to  ask  the 
librarians  to  buy  books  for  them,  for  which  they  have 
invariably  sent  the  money.  Several  technical  books 
have  been  sent  by  us  in  this  way." 

Cmrent  books  which  had  aroused  public  interest 
were  generously  provided  by  the  publishers,  an  en- 
deavor being  made  to  supply  not  only  standard  works 
but  also  books  of  the  moment  bearing  upon  the  war. 
Books  on  aeroplanes,  submarines,  and  wireless  teleg- 
raphy were  much  in  demand  even  before  special  at- 
tention was  paid  to  technical  subjects,  while  books 


262  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

dealing  with  wild  animals  and  their  habits  were  al- 
ways great  favorites. 

One  day  the  Hbrarians  were  asked  for  a  particular 
book  on  high  explosives.  They  hesitated  about  spend- 
ing eighteen  shillings  to  meet  a  single  request,  but 
on  referring  the  matter  to  the  doctor  in  charge  they 
were  told  to  go  ahead  and  buy  not  only  that  but  any 
other  special  books  that  seemed  to  be  wanted.  This 
suggested  the  idea  of  finding  out  just  what  sub- 
jects the  men  were  interested  in,  what  their  occupa- 
tions had  been  before  the  war,  and  their  plans  for  the 
future.  Thenceforth  the  work  of  the  librarians  be- 
came to  a  certain  extent  constructive,  —  and  conse- 
quently tenfold  more  interesting,  —  inasmuch  as  it 
was  helping  to  equip  the  men  for  their  return  to 
active  life. 

In  came  requests  for  books  on  aeroplanes;  architec- 
ture; cabinet-making  and  old  furniture;  chemistry, 
organic  and  inorganic;  coal  mining;  drawing  and 
painting;  electricity;  engineering  in  its  various 
branches;  gardening  and  forestry;  languages;  meteor- 
ology; music;  paper  making,  printing;  submarines; 
veterinary  medicine;  violin  making,  and  so  on.  A  sol- 
dier from  Nova  Scotia,  whose  father's  business  was 
fish  curing,  asked  for  a  book  on  that  subject,  wishing 
to  learn  English  methods  and  to  gain  all  the  informa- 
tion he  could  about  it  before  being  sent  back  home.  A 
book  on  Sheffield  plate,  lent  to  the  hospital  library  by 
an  antiquary,  proved  a  veritable  godsend  to  a  crip- 
pled soldier  who  had  been  a  second-hand  dealer  be- 


BRITISH  HOSPITAL  LIBRARIES       263 

fore  the  war  and  who  considered  it  a  rare  chance  that 
such  a  book  had  come  his  way,  as  the  copious  notes 
he  was  able  to  make  from  it  would  be  invaluable  to 
him  afterwards. 

"Our  experiences,"  concludes  Miss  Harraden, 
"have  tended  to  show  that  a  library  department 
organized  and  run  by  people  who  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  books  might  prove  to  be  a  useful  asset  in  any 
hospital,  both  military  and  civil,  and  be  the  means  of 
affording  not  only  amusement  and  distraction,  but 
even  definite  education  —  induced,  of  course,  not  in- 
sisted on.  To  obtain  satisfactory  results,  it  would 
seem,  however,  that  even  a  good  and  carefully  chosen 
collection  of  books  of  all  kinds  does  not  suffice.  In 
addition,  an  official  librarian  is  needed  who  will  supply 
the  initiative,  which  in  the  circumstances  is  of  neces- 
sity lacking,  and  whose  duty  it  is  to  visit  the  wards, 
study  the  temperaments,  inclinations,  and  possibili- 
ties of  the  patients  and  thus  find  out  by  direct  per- 
sonal intercourse  what  will  arouse,  help,  stimulate, 
lift  —  and  heal." 


CHAPTER  XV 

READING  IN  THE  PRISON  CAMPS 

"One  of  the  greatest  miseries  of  prison  life,  and  one 
of  the  most  demoralizing  aspects  of  it,"  said  Professor 
Gilbert  Murray,  "is  the  aimlessness  and  emptiness  of 
existence  from  day  to  day.  The  reports  which  I  have 
heard,  both  from  escaped  prisoners  and  from  those 
who  have  visited  the  prison  camps,  have  almost  al- 
ways the  same  bm-den:  the  men  who  fill  their  days 
with  some  purposeful  occupation  come  through 
safely;  the  men  who  cannot  do  so,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, break  or  fail.  The  occupation  must  be  purpose- 
ful; it  must  not  merely  while  away  the  time,  like 
playing  cards  or  walking  up  and  down  a  prison  yard; 
it  must  have  in  it  some  element  of  hope,  of  progress, 
of  preparation  for  the  future.  A  man  who  works  at 
learning  a  foreign  language  in  order  to  talk  to  a  fel- 
low-prisoner is  saved  from  the  worst  dangers  of  prison 
life;  an  electrician  who  goes  on  studying  electricity  is 
saved;  a  student  who  sets  himself  to  pass  his  exami- 
nations, an  artisan  who  works  to  better  himself  in  his 
trade,  an  artist  who  works  on  his  drawing  or  paint- 
ing, a  teacher  who  works  at  the  further  mastering  of 
his  subject  —  all  these  are  protected  against  the  in- 
fectious poison  of  their  captivity." 

Testimony  to  the  truth  of  these  words  is  abundant. 


GERMAN  PRISONER  STUDENT  READING  AN  AMERICAN  BOOK 
IN  A  BRITISH  PRISON  CAMP  IN  FRANCE 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS        265 

and  evidence  of  the  widespread  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  men  in  the  prison  camps  to  avail  themselves  of  all 
possible  opportunities  for  reading  and  study  is  to  be 
found  on  every  hand.  In  the  judgment  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Parry,  of  the  British  Navy,  large  numbers 
of  prisoners  of  war  were  saved  from  serious  mental 
deterioration  by  having  access  to  interesting  works 
on  nautical  astronomy,  navigation,  seamanship,  and 
allied  subjects  in  which  they  were  specially  inter- 
ested. 

Professor  Sir  Henry  Jones,  of  Glasgow  University, 
wrote  that  his  son,  who  was  interned  at  Yozgad,  in 
Asiatic  Turkey,  after  the  fall  of  Kut-el-Amara,  had 
tried  to  make  the  best  of  his  condition  by  writing 
songs,  an  amateur  drama,  and  a  juvenile  book,  in 
collaboration  with  another  officer.  The  arrival  of 
some  law  books  sent  from  the  Headquarters  of  the 
British  Prisoners  of  War  Book  Scheme  (Educational) 
helped  him  to  continue  his  preparation  for  the  Eng- 
lish Bar. 

A  teacher  in  the  Italian  section  of  the  prison  camp 
school  at  Ruhleben  was  of  the  opinion  that  more  Ital- 
ian was  studied  there  than  at  the  Universities  of  Lon- 
don, Oxford,  and  Cambridge  in  normal  times. 

A  British  company  sergeant-major,  imprisoned  at 
Minden,  was  furnished  with  a  Russian  grammar  and 
dictionary,  and  reported  that  he  learned  to  read, 
write,  and  speak  Russian  fairly  well.  He  mentioned 
various  books  which  might  prove  helpful  to  him, 
but  was  quite  content  to  leave  the  selection  to  those 


266  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

at  the  Headquarters  of  the  British  Prisoners  of  War 
Book  Scheme. 

Hundreds  of  schools  were  maintained  in  the  prison- 
pens  of  the  contending  armies  by  the  American 
Y.M.C.A.  Among  the  hordes  of  prisoners,  not  only 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  boys  from  twelve  to 
twenty,  but  older  men  as  well,  were  eager  to  study, 
and  university  professors,  clergymen,  engineers,  and 
other  professional  men  were  ready  and  glad  to  give 
instruction  in  the  branches  in  which  they  were  pro- 
ficient. Books  were  essential  for  the  classroom  work 
and  an  endless  variety  of  texts  and  manuals  was 
asked  for.  To  meet  this  demand  thousands  of  vol- 
umes were  furnished  by  the  American  Library  Asso- 
ciation, to  whom  the  Y.M.C.A.  had  handed  over  vir- 
tually its  entire  library  business.  What  this  meant  to 
the  prisoners  in  the  camps  cannot  be  overestimated; 
to  all  it  meant  hope  and  joy,  to  some  perhaps  even 
life  and  sanity. 

Count  L ,  a  prisoner  in  a  Russiain  camp,  asked 

for  a  good  American  story,  and  the  Y.M.C.A.  secre- 
tary brought  him  "Black  Rock."  The  Count  pro- 
nounced it  one  of  the  best  novels  he  had  ever  read, 
and  asked  the  secretary  to  send  him  ten  others  of  the 
same  kind  from  America  "after  the  war."  Having 
occasion  to  go  to  Petrograd  a  few  days  later,  the 
**Y."  man  purchased  books  by  Ralph  Connor,  Gene 
Stratton  Porter,  and  Jack  London,  and  gave  them  to 
the  Count.  No  other  volumes  ever  received  such 
joyful  reading.  They  were  afterwards  presented  to 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         267 

the  prison  Kbrary  where  they  were  in  great  demand. 
Other  books  of  the  same  class  were  later  sent  to  the 
prison. 

An  American  Y.M.C.A.  secretary  in  a  Russian 
prison  camp  borrowed  a  Koran  and  the  other  books 
needed  by  the  Mohammedans  for  a  service,  which  he 
arranged  for  them.  Another  secretary,  writing  from 
the  war  prisons  in  Eastern  Siberia,  reported  that  the 
Germans  and  Austrians  occupied  much  of  their  time 
in  study.  As  at  first  it  was  impossible  to  secure  books 
in  any  language  but  Russian,  the  prison  schools  were 
for  a  time  equipped  with  Russian  textbooks  only. 
These  were  translated  for  the  men  by  the  prisoners 
who  had  a  general  knowledge  of  Russian.  Many  of  the 
prisoners  spoke  English  or  French,  and  the  more  pro- 
ficient among  them  organized  study  groups,  so  that 
all  the  camps  soon  came  to  have  good-sized  language 
schools.  Some  of  the  student  captives  learned  four  or 
five  languages  during  their  imprisonment.  Commer- 
cial Spanish  proved  especially  popular.  As  the  prison 
schools  taught  everything  from  the  alphabet  up  to 
literary  and  scientific  subjects  of  university  grade, 
some  men  were  able  not  only  to  learn  trades,  but  to 
secure  three  years'  apprenticeship.  In  the  course  of 
time,  thousands  of  German  books  arrived  for  the 
prisoners  and  so  enabled  many  of  the  advanced  stu- 
dents to  continue  studies  interrupted  by  the  war. 

Thousands  of  German  prisoners  of  war  were  taken 
to  Holland  in  exchange  for  British  prisoners.  These 
men,  reports  Mr.  Isaac  F.  Marcosson,  took  up  the 


268  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

study  of  Dutch,  Spanish,  or  English,  just  as  was  being 
done  in  the  prison  camps  in  France  and  elsewhere,  so 
that  though  rendered  incapable  of  fighting  further  in 
the  physical  war,  they  were  "preparing  for  the  peace- 
ful war  after  the  war." 

Mr.  Will  Irwin  visited  a  prison  camp  in  Southern 
France  in  December,  1917,  and  found  many  of  the 
German  prisoners  quite  studious.  "The  prisoners  sat 
at  tables,  absorbed  in  books,"  wrote  Mr.  Irwin.  "At 
the  growling  command  of  a  sergeant,  they  sprang  to 
attention;  and  then,  on  a  gesture  from  the  French 
officer  who  accompanied  me,  sat  down  again  and  re- 
sumed their  books.  I  passed  from  table  to  table.  One 
or  two  were  reading  novels;  one  was  transcribing 
music;  the  rest  were  studying.  Over  the  circulating 
library  of  some  fifteen  hundred  volumes  presided  a 
tall,  good-looking  Bavarian.  He  was,  he  informed  me 
in  excellent  French,  not  only  the  librarian,  but  also 
the  schoolmaster."  He  had  been  a  teacher  before  the 
war  and  was  now  instructing  his  fellow  prisoners  in 
French  and  mathematics.  Courses  in  English,  Span- 
ish, mechanical  drawing,  and  the  theory  of  music 
were  being  given.  Men  qualified  to  teach  other 
branches  came  into  the  camp  from  time  to  time,  and 
while  they  were  there  classes  were  organized  in  the 
subjects  with  which  they  were  familiar.  Letters  seen 
by  Mr.  Irwin  from  French  prisoners  in  Germany 
showed  that  they  followed  the  same  course;  whenever 
they  had  leisure  and  instructors  were  available,  they 
employed  the  time  in  studying  something. 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS        26D 

In  the  military  prison  at  Wesel,  Wallace  Ellison 
was  confined  in  a  cell  five  paces  long  and  two  and  a 
half  wide.  In  one  pocket  he  found  a  stump  of  pencil, 
in  another  a  few  scraps  of  toilet  paper,  and  setting  to 
work,  he  wrote  down  all  the  verse  and  prose  that  he 
had  committed  to  memory,  only  regretting  that  he 
had  not  memorized  more. 

Over  and  over  again  he  said  to  himself  — 

"I  will  arise  and  go  now,  and  go  to  Innisfree, 
And  a  small  cabin  build  there  of  clay  and  wattles  made." 

**It  mattered  nothing  that  I  could  not  arise  and  go,'* 
said  he.  "One  day  I  should  find  my  Innisfree,  and 
that  suflBced  for  me.  I  tried  to  remember  Kipling's 
'If  and  'Gunga  Din,'  Browning's  'One  who  never 
turned  his  back,  but  marched  breast  forward,'  Ten- 
nyson's 'Revenge,'  and  a  score  of  others,  finding  tre- 
mendous consolation  in  them  all."  Two  lines  from 
Meredith's  "Love  in  a  Valley"  were  often  on  his  lips: 

"She  whom  I  love  is  hard  to  catch  and  conquer  — 
Hard,  but  oh,  the  glory  of  the  winning  were  she  won!" 

On  the  third  day  of  his  confinement,  Ellison  re- 
solved to  ask  for  something  to  read.  In  answer  to  his 
summons  the  warder  appeared,  accompanied  by  a 
tall  sentry  who  stood  in  the  corridor  with  loaded  rifle 
and  fixed  bayonet. 

"What  do  you  want?"  bellowed  the  warder. 

Ellison  told  him,  as  politely  as  he  could,  that  he 
would  like  something  to  read.  The  warder  glared  at 
him  in  amazement. 


270  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"Read!  What  do  you  mean?" 

"Oh,  a  newspaper  or  a  book  —  anything.  You  have 
no  right  to  treat  me  in  this  fashion.  At  the  very  worst, 
we  are  in  remand  arrest.  We  have  had  no  trial,  nor 
has  any  sentence  been  passed  upon  us." 

Reaching  out,  the  warder  tapped  with  his  hand  on 
the  whitewashed  walls  of  the  cell.  Putting  his  ugly 
face  uncomfortably  close  to  Ellison's,  he  shouted  in  a 
hoarse  voice,  charged  with  all  the  hatred  that  it  could 
hold,  — 

"Here  are  the  four  walls  of  your  cell.  You  are  a 
prisoner.  Read  those!" 

The  key  turned  twice  in  the  lock,  and  Ellison  found 
himself  alone  again.  To  his  astonishment  the  warder 
returned  a  quarter  of  an  hour  later,  bringing  with  him 
a  German  blood-and-thunder  story  which  Ellison  read 
with  great  glee.  From  that  time  the  man,  who  had 
been  brutal  and  coarse  to  the  prisoners  in  ways  that 
cannot  be  described,  tried  very  sheepishly  to  make 
amends  for  his  former  conduct. 

Frequently,  after  long  months  of  imprisonment, 
Ellison  would  repeat  to  himself  Sterne's  beautiful  in- 
vocation to  the  Spirit  of  Humor:  "Gentle  Spirit  of 
sweetest  humor,  who  erst  didst  sit  upon  the  easy  pen 
of  my  beloved  Cervantes!  Thou  who  glidedst  daily 
through  his  lattice,  and  turnedst  the  twilight  of  his 
prison  into  noonday  brightness  by  thy  presence  — 
tingedst  his  little  urn  of  water  with  Heaven-sent  nec- 
tar, and  all  the  time  he  wrote  of  Sancho  and  his  mas- 
ter, didst  cast  thy  mystic  mantle  o'er  his  withered 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS        271 

stump,  and  wide  extendedst  it  to  all  the  evils  of  his 
life,  —  Turn  in  hither,  I  beseech  thee!" 

A  Scotchman,  one  of  the  "Old  Contemptibles," 
told  Ellison  of  his  attempt  to  get  something  to  read: 
"Mon,I  mind  fine  how  I  tried  in  Doeberitz  Camp  to 
get  my  wife  to  send  me  an  English  newspaper  in  my 
parcels,  but  for  a  long  time  I  could  n't  just  hit  on 
the  right  sort  o'  thing  to  say  in  my  letters  to  her  so 
that  she  would  understand  and  the  German  censor 
would  n't.  At  last  I  wrote  to  her  and  said,  quite  inno- 
cent like  —  'Dear  Mary,  —  I  wish  you  could  let  me 
have  the  fine  times  which  Angus  Mackenzie  lets  you 
have  every  Sunday  morning.'  Angus  Mackenzie  is  the 
news  agent  in  the  town  where  I  live  in  Scotland,  an' 
by  the  *fine  times,*  ye  ken,  I  meant  Lloyd*s  Weekly 
News.  Mon,  I  got  an  awfu'  letter  back  frae  my  wifel" 

To  a  fellow  prisoner,  Ellison  read  Kipling's  "Back 
to  the  Army,  Sergeant,"  and  saw  his  comrade's  face 

light  up  with  wonder.  "By  G ,  that's  just  it!"  was 

his  comment.  "It  was  as  though  many  of  these  men 
had  walked  straight  out  of  *  Barrack-Room  Ballads' 
or  the  'Seven  Seas.'  They  respected  Kipling  almost 
to  the  point  of  veneration.  I  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  critics  who  aver  that  Kipling  does  not 
understand  human  nature  —  and  there  are  many 
such  —  simply  do  not  know  the  types  of  men  whom 
Kipling  knows  through  and  through." 

"Yes,  Ellison,  I  suppose  this  is  what  hell  is  like," 
said  a  fellow  prisoner.  "You  are  compelled  to  live 
year  in  and  year  out  with  a  lot  of  men  whom  you 


272  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

detest,  and  from  whom  there  is  no  means  of  escape. 
Hell  can't  be  any  worse  than  this." 

"Quite  so,"  answered  Ellison,  "but  with  this  one 
difference.  If  I  have  read  my  Dante  aright,  there  is  no 
escape  from  hell.  But  I  think  I  shall  find  a  way  out 
of  here." 

After  an  attempted  escape,  Ellison  was  arrested  in 
Berlin  and  confined  to  a  cell.  Books  were  allowed  the 
prisoners,  and  although  the  range  of  choice  was  very 
much  limited,  he  found  solace  in  Prescott's  "His- 
tory of  the  Conquest  of  Peru,"  "The  Autobiography 
of  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,"  the  second  volume  of 
Morley's  "Life  of  Gladstone,"  Walton's  "Compleat 
Angler,"  the  first  portion  of  "Don  Quixote,"  and 
Gordon's  "  Diary  in  Khartoum."  He  also  managed  to 
procure  from  a  fellow  prisoner  a  number  of  recently 
published  books  written  by  German  flying-men,  sub- 
marine commanders,  naval  officers,  and  war  corre- 
spondents, which  he  found  intensely  interesting. 

In  his  book  entitled  "  Captured,"  Lieutenant  J.  H. 
Douglas,  of  the  Fourth  Canadian  Mounted  Rifles, 
gives  us  interesting  glimpses  of  the  thirst  for  reading 
among  the  prisoners  of  war.  While  with  some  of  the 
men  it  merely  served  to  pass  away  the  time,  to  others 
it  meant  salvation.  Two  of  his  comrades  had  been  in 
the  hospital  for  a  long  time  and  had  a  few  books  that 
had  escaped  the  censor.  The  German  pastor  who 
buried  their  dead  had  given  them  an  English  book 
entitled  "The  Life  of  a  Curate."  There  was  a  waiting 
list  for  all  English  books,  which  were  passed  around 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         273 

the  hospital  as  fast  as  they  could  be  read.  Lieutenant 
Douglas  says  that  if  they  had  had  a  copy  of  Web- 
ster's Dictionary,  it  would  have  been  devoured  from 
cover  to  cover.  The  men  subscribed  to  the  Kolnische 
Zeitung  and  every  evening  after  supper  they  gathered 
around  the  table  while  some  one  translated  the  dis- 
patches: "We  smiled  when  we  read  almost  every  day 
how  the  English  had  suffered  Blutige  Schlag  (bloody 
defeat)."  With  the  exception  of  the  Continental  Times, 
a  pro-German  paper  distributed  free  among  the  pris- 
oners, they  had  not  seen  a  newspaper  printed  in  Eng- 
lish since  they  had  been  taken  prisoners. 

The  study  of  French  attracted  many  of  the  Eng- 
Hshmen.  Lieutenant  Douglas  exchanged  lessons  in 
English  for  instruction  in  French  with  a  French  cap- 
tain in  the  hospital.  They  managed  to  have  textbooks 
bought  for  them  in  the  city  and  did  serious  work  for 
two  hours  every  day  —  dividing  the  time  equally  be- 
tween the  two  languages  and  going  straight  through 
the  grammar,  one  lesson  at  a  time.  At  first  all  the  ex- 
planations were  made  in  German  as  this  was  the  lan- 
guage both  knew  best.  Later  they  used  only  the  lan- 
guage they  were  studying  at  the  time.  Exercises  were 
written  as  part  of  the  preparation  for  each  lesson, 
and  were  corrected  and  rated  as  strictly  as  though 
they  were  university  examination  papers.  All  this 
served  to  make  the  day  seem  shorter,  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  French  acquired  proved  of  great  value  to 
Lieutenant  Douglas  later  when  he  was  transferred  to 
Switzerland,  where  he  and  some  of  his  fellow  prison- 


274  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ers  were  allowed  to  register  at  the  University  of  Lau- 
sanne and  took  courses  in  engineering  and  French 
literature. 

The  French  captain  was  an  indefatigable  worker, 
and,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  do  so,  commenced 
the  study  of  French  law  through  some  books  ordered 
from  Paris.  For  a  year  and  a  half  he  lived  almost 
alone  and  maintained  his  sanity  by  very  hard  read- 
ing. In  sheer  desperation  he  took  up  the  study  of  Ger- 
man with  a  sanitaire.  He  even  attempted  English 
by  himself  and  made  remarkable  progress. 

The  prisoners  as  a  rule  were  greatly  interested  in 
the  belated  foreign  newspapers  which  came  to  them. 
For  a  long  time  only  two  —  the  London  Times  and 
the  Paris  Temps  —  were  allowed  in  the  camps  in  Rus- 
sia, a  restriction  made  in  order  to  save  the  time  of 
the  Russian  censors  rather  than  on  account  of  any 
distrust  of  other  English  or  French  papers.  Not  only 
all  German  and  American,  but  all  neutral  newspapers 
were  banned.  It  was  only  after  America  entered  the 
war  that  permission  was  secured  for  the  prisoners  to 
receive  the  New  York  Times.  Whenever  any  of  the 
English  papers  were  brought  into  the  prison  camps, 
some  one  who  knew  English  well  was  selected  to 
translate  them  aloud,  while  groups  sat  around  and 
listened  for  hours  at  a  time. 

Mr.  J.  L.  Austin,  a  British  officer  who  was  impris- 
oned in  various  German  camps  early  in  the  war,  has 
published  his  experiences  as  a  German  prisoner.  He 
says  that  upon  arrival  at  Torgau  in  Saxony,  they 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS        275 

obtained  a  few  English  books  at  the  railway  station. 
The  British  officers  formed  a  circulating  library  and 
English  and  French  authors  were  readily  procurable 
in  Tauchnitz  editions.  "There  was  no  lack  of  reading 
material,  but  there  was  a  tendency  for  other  people 
to  borrow  your  book  before  you  had  finished  with  it, 
and  if  any  one  lost  a  volume  that  he  had  brought  out, 
he  had  nothing  to  exchange  for  another.  But  in  spite 
of  certain  irregularities  the  system  worked  well; 
many  books  also  were  sent  to  officers  from  home,  and 
generally  arrived  safely.  We  were  always  allowed  to 
take  in  the  German  newspapers,  and  for  a  short  time, 
by  the  courtesy  of  a  highly  placed  gentleman,  a  few 
copies  of  the  Times  and  some  illustrated  Enghsh 
papers  drifted  into  the  camp.  Thus  we  were  enabled 
to  read  Sir  John  French's  dispatches  up  to  the  end  of 
the  first  battle  of  the  Aisne,  but  at  the  other  camps 
where  we  have  been,  it  has  always  been  impossible  to 
obtain  English  newspapers.  The  German  newspapers 
on  the  whole  contained  very  Httle  information,  and 
whenever  there  was  anything  approaching  a  German 
reverse,  it  was  published  two  or  three  days  later  as  an 
unconfirmed  report  from  London,  Rome,  or  elsewhere. 
Most  of  the  papers  consisted  of  articles  aimed  at 
England,  and  were  in  many  of  their  facts  and  in  their 
expressions  of  hate  somewhat  grotesque  and  amusing 
reading.  There  was  never,  however,  any  attempt  to 
disguise  the  loss  of  German  ships,  and  we  obtained 
fairly  good  accounts  of  the  Heligoland  fight  and  of 
the  battle  of  the  Falkland  Islands." 


276  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"While  British  newspapers  were  distinctly  verboten, 
we  were  permitted  to  purchase  German  publications, 
which  were  brought  in  daily,  and  sold  by  a  German 
girl,"  says  H.  C.  Mahoney  in  his  "Interned  in  Ger- 
many." "For  the  most  part,  the  Teuton  papers  com- 
prised the  Berliner  Tagehlatt  and  *Aunt  Voss,'  of 
which  last,  rumor  had  it,  special  editions  were  pre- 
pared for  our  express  edification;  but  to  the  truth  of 
this  statement  I  cannot  testify.  Delivery  was  not 
exactly  regular,  and  as  the  newsgirl  had  plenty  of 
patronage,  we  could  not  understand,  at  first,  her 
apparent  indifference  to  trade.  Later,  we  discovered 
that  all  of  the  papers  were  submitted  to  rigid  censor- 
ing before  they  could  be  brought  into  the  camp,  and  if 
they  contained  a  line  concerning  a  British  success  of 
arms,  they  were  prohibited.  By  such  action,  the  au- 
thorities doubtless  hoped  to  keep  us  in  ignorance 
of  British  military  developments,  but,  once  having 
gleaned  the  reason  for  the  non-appearance  of  the 
papers,  we  naturally  measured  British  successes  by 
the  days  on  which  the  news-sheets  were  not  forth- 
coming. As  time  went  on  and  the  number  of  blanks 
increased,  we  rightly  concluded  that  the  German 
army  was  receiving  a  series  of  jolts  which  it  did  not 
relish.  Consequently,  by  forbidding  the  papers,  the 
Teutons  defeated  their  own  ends.  Although  we  were 
somewhat  in  the  dark  as  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
British  achievements,  we  were  free  to  speculate  on 
the  subject. 

"One   day   a   huge   bundle   of   newspapers   was 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         277 

brought  into  camp,  and  to  our  astonishment  they 
were  freely  distributed  among  the  prisoners  who 
quickly  gathered  around.  That  the  authorities  should 
present  us  with  copies  of  a  newspaper  hot  from  the 
press  was  an  outburst  of  magnanimity  which  quite 
overwhelmed  us,  and  our  delight  became  intensified 
when  we  read  the  title:  Continental  Times.  We  sup- 
posed this  to  be  a  Continental  edition  of  the  eminent 
British  daily  and  we  grabbed  the  proffered  copies 
with  eager  delight.  But  when  we  dipped  into  the  con- 
tents! Phew!  The  howl  of  rage  that  went  up  and  the 
invectives  that  were  hurled  to  the  four  winds  startled 
even  the  guard.  At  first  we  thought  the  venerable  Old 
Lady  of  Printing  House  Square  had  become  bereft, 
since  the  paper  was  crammed  from  beginning  to  end 
with  pro-German  propaganda  of  an  amazing  and  in- 
credible description.  It  was  a  cunning  move,  but  so 
shallow  as  merely  to  provoke  sarcasm.  Time  after 
time  that  offensive  sheet  was  brought  into  camp  and 
given  away;  but  on  each  occasion  we  subjected  it  to 
the  grossest  indignities  we  could  conceive.  What  it 
cost  the  authorities  to  endeavor  to  deceive  us  in  this 
way  is  only  known  to  themselves,  but  it  was  a  ghastly 
fiasco.  Truly,  the  Teuton  is  strangely  warped  in  his 
psychology." 

Mr.  Ian  Malcolm,  M.P.,  in  his  "War  Pictures,  Be- 
hind the  Lines,"  says  that  when  he  visited  some  of  the 
prison  camps  he  was  able  to  dispel  certain  illusions 
and  to  disprove  a  large  variety  of  stories  which  had 
been  the  main  contents  of  the  Gazette  des  Ardennes,  a 


278  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

bi-weekly  newspaper  published  by  the  Germans  at 
Charleville  for  the  "benefit"  of  French  prisoners. 
The  prisoners  told  Mr.  Malcolm  that  they  always 
bought  it,  though  money  was  scarce  and  it  cost  a 
penny,  because  there  was  always  so  much  to  laugh 
at  in  it.  "Certainly,  if  all  the  issues  were  as  uncon- 
sciously comic  as  those  which  I  saw  on  that  train,  the 
penny  was  money  well  spent.  Several  men  told  me 
that  on  the  days  when  this  egregious  newspaper  ap- 
peared with  its  imaginary  news  of  French  defeats  and 
of  disasters  to  the  Allies  all  over  the  globe,  German 
oflScers  and  N.C.O.'s  used  to  go  round  the  camps  and 
ask  the  men  what  they  thought  of  it.  The  Germans, 
who  unfortimately  believed  it  all,  were  horrified  to 
see  their  captives  making  exceedingly  merry  and  de- 
clining to  credit  a  single  word.  Another  paper  of  the 
same  agreeable  kind  is  circulated  for  the  benefit  of 
English  prisoners  and  is  called  The  Continental  Times; 
a  Journal  for  Americans  in  Europe^  price  twopence 
halfpenny  —  and  dear  at  the  price.  I  can  hardly  im- 
agine any  sane  American  buying  it,  as  it  contains  little 
but  reprints  of  ravings  against  England  (if  possible 
by  English  writers),  off-scouring  from  newspapers 
like  the  Gaelic-Americany  and  clumsy  inventions  by 
way  of  war  news.  It  is  fair  to  add  that  it  now  pub- 
lishes some  of  the  French  and  English  communiques 
from  the  seat  of  war;  but  it  did  not  include  these 
items  until  it  had  done  its  best  in  all  previous  num- 
bers to  prove  that  such  information  from  the  Allies 
was  unworthy  of  credence." 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         279 

Captain  Horace  Gray  Gilliland,  in  speaking  of  the 
dreariness  of  camp  life  at  Munden,  says  that  no  daily 
paper,  nor  periodicals  of  any  sort,  not  even  German 
ones,  were  allowed  the  men.  They  had  "  only  a  rag 
called  The  Continental  Times;  a  Journal  for  Ameri- 
cans in  Europe,  —  probably  the  most  scandalous 
paper  ever  produced,  copies  of  which  should  cer- 
tainly be  printed  after  the  declaration  of  peace,  and 
would  be  worth  a  guinea  a  copy,  I  can  assure  you. 
There  were  only  about  a  dozen  English  novels  in 
the  camp,  and  no  means  of  obtaining  more;  conse- 
quently, to  keep  one's  mind  occupied,  one  had  to 
read  them  over  and  over  again." 

Captain  J.  A.  L.  Caunter,  of  the  First  Battalion, 
the  Gloucestershire  Regiment,  spent  several  years  as 
a  prisoner  of  war  at  Crefeld.  According  to  his  testi- 
mony the  German  people  did  not  believe  their  own 
official  reports  and  the  Times  was  largely  read  by  peo- 
ple in  the  town.  "I  have  heard  it  actually  said  by  a 
German,"  he  states,  "that  he  read  it  so  as  to  get  news 
of  the  war  —  the  German  papers  containing  nothing 
but  stuff  entirely  favorable  to  the  Fatherland.  There 
was  an  official  report  issued  by  the  Great  Headquar- 
ters every  afternoon  and  this  appeared  in  the  Extra 
Blatty  a  yellow  sheet  of  paper  specially  printed.  This 
Extra  Blatt  used  to  be  carried  past  the  prison  by  an 
old  Boche,  who  always  shouted  the  same  thing  — 
*  heavy  losses  of  the  English,  French,  and  Russians.' 
At  last,  after  hearing  him  daily  for  two  years  or  more, 
the  prisoners  began  to  assert  themselves,  and  he  was 


280  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

received  with  cheers,  which  daily  grew  louder,  until 
the  commandant  ordered  that  the  old  man  should 
not  come  past  any  more  and  give  opportunities  for 
the  prisoners  to  practice  their  sarcasm  at  the  expense 
of  the  communiques  of  the  '  Great  Headquarters.' 
New  arrivals  at  the  prison  camp  were  hardly  ever 
able  to  tell  the  old  men  anything  that  they  did  not 
already  know  from  the  newspapers." 

Mr.  Israel  Cohen  says  that  at  Ruhleben  English 
newspapers  were  strictly  banned,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Continental  Times  which  was  sometimes  dis- 
tributed gratuitously  in  the  camp  with  a  view  to  un- 
dermining the  loyalty  of  the  English  prisoners.  "But 
despite  the  military  prohibition  and  the  most  vigilant 
precautions,  we  were  able,  nevertheless,  to  see  at  first 
the  Times,  and  then  the  Daily  Telegraph,  fairiy  regu- 
lariy.  That  these  papers  came  into  the  camp  was  not 
unknown  to  the  miHtary  authorities;  but  how  they 
came  remained  an  impenetrable  mystery.  One  of  the 
military  officers,  Rittmeister  von  Miitzenbecher,  was 
even  sportsman  enough  to  admire  us  for  the  skill  with 
which  we  circumvented  the  regulations.  In  the  course 
of  a  little  speech,  in  June,  1915,  in  which  he  compli- 
mented the  actors  in  a  performance  of  'The  Speckled 
Band,'  he  dwelt  upon  the  ingenuity  of  Sheriock 
Holmes,  and  said:  *I  think  this  Sheriock  Holmes  had 
better  remain  in  the  camp  until  the  end  of  the  war. 
He  may  be  able  to  find  out  for  us  how  the  Times  gets 
into  the  camp.  At  present  we  don't  know,  but  we 
should  very  much  like  to  know.'  The  price  paid  for  a 


PRISONERS  OF  WAR  ALWAYS  DISPLAYED  AN  INTEREST 
IN  NEWSPAPERS 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         281 

single  copy  of  the  English  paper  by  the  prisoner  who 
acted  as  news-agent  varied  from  five  to  ten  marks, 
owing  to  the  risk  involved  in  the  trajQBc,  but  the  agent 
always  made  a  handsome  profit,  as  he  lent  the  paper 
out,  at  one  or  two  marks  an  hour,  to  groups  of  fellow 
prisoners.  The  borrower  seldom  knew  who  the  agent 
was;  a  stranger  brought  him  the  paper  and  punctu- 
ally, at  the  end  of  the  allotted  time,  fetched  it  away 
again.  The  efforts  made  by  the  authorities  to  solve 
the  mystery  all  failed  lamentably.  On  one  occasion 
soldiers  were  sent  to  sneak  up  behind  the  men  who  sat 
reading  papers  on  the  grand  stand  and  see  whether 
any  of  the  papers  were  either  English  or  French.  One 
zealous  soldier  made  two  captures  and  marched  his 
men  with  their  papers  to  the  military  office,  fully  ex- 
pecting punishment  for  the  prisoners  and  praise  for 
himself.  But  a  moment's  examination  showed  that 
one  of  the  papers  was  La  Belgique,  which  appears  in 
Brussels  under  German  censorship,  while  the  other 
was  the  notorious  Continental  Times.  On  the  whole, 
however,  there  were  few  regular  readers  of  an  English 
paper,  as  the  luxury  of  a  subscription  was  a  little  too 
costly  for  a  prison  camp.  It  was  thanks  to  the  same 
ingenious  mechanism  that  copies  of  the  weekly  Zu- 
kunft,  in  which  Maximilian  Harden  scarified  his  Gov- 
ernment, made  their  way  into  our  horse-boxes,  and 
likewise  that  I  was  able  to  read  at  my  leisure  that  re- 
markable exposure  of  Germany's  guilt  in  causing  the 
war,  J' Accuse,  the  perusal  of  which  is  prohibited  in 
Germany  on  pain  of  fine  and  imprisonment." 


282  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Mr.  Percy  L.  Close,  a  member  of  the  Volunteer 
Squadron  of  the  Eighth  Mounted  Rifles,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Germans  in  Southwest  Africa,  and  has 
given  an  account  of  the  dreary  prison  Uf e  at  Marien- 
thal  and  Gibeon.  "Those  who  were  fortunate,"  says 
he,  "had  a  few  magazines  and  one  or  two  novels  to 
read.  It  did  not  matter  whether  the  reading  matter 
was  utter  trash.  We  read  anything  for  the  sake  of 
reading."  He  adds  that  just  before  he  was  released, 
one  of  the  officers  had  with  him  on  arrival  at  Tsumeb 
a  weekly  edition  of  the  Cape  Times.  This  was  passed 
from  hand  to  hand,  and  from  the  "Diary  of  the  War" 
which  it  contained,  the  men  were  able  to  inform 
themselves  of  the  principal  events  during  the  period 
of  their  internment. 

An  "exchanged  officer,"  in  his  "Wounded  and  a 
Prisoner  of  War,"  mentions  an  evening  made  memo- 
rable by  the  arrival  of  a  parcel  of  books,  Tauchnitz 
edition,  which  the  men  had  been  allowed  to  order. 
He  adds  that  no  doubt  the  publishers  were  glad  of  the 
chance  to  unload  their  stock  of  British  authors,  as 
after  the  close  of  the  war  there  would  not  be  likely 
to  be  much  demand  for  the  Tauchnitz  volumes. 

In  August,  1915,  a  committee  of  four  persons  was 
called  together  in  London  by  Dr.  C.  T.  Hagberg 
Wright,  to  provide  Russian  prisoners  in  Germany 
with  Russian  books.  This  English  committee,  which 
was  enlarged  in  October,  1916,  worked  with  the  Rus- 
sian committee  in  Holland,  through  whom  they  were 
first  put  in  touch  with  many  of  the  camps.  A  few 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         283 

typical  examples  of  the  kind  of  letters  received  from 
prisoners,  both  civil  and  military,  will  show  how 
their  efforts  were  received. 

The  first  is  from  a  young  girl  volmiteer,  a  prisoner 
at  Havelberg,  who  had  written  asking  for  a  parcel  of 
food:  "I  am  a  schoolgirl  of  nineteen  years,  and  have 
been  a  prisoner  two  and  a  half  years,  but  what  I  want 
is  to  have  some  books  to  study  English;  if  it  is  pos- 
sible, please  reply  to  me." 

Another  is  from  a  young  soldier:  "I  am  a  student 
of  the  Oriental  Institute  of  Vladivostock  where  I 
was  studying  Chinese  and  Japanese,  and  now,  after 
eighteen  months  of  captivity,  I  find  that  I  have  in 
part  forgotten  these  languages.  If  it  be  possible  I 
should  so  like  to  obtain  something  on  these  languages, 
either  in  Russian  or  French,  to  enable  me  to  continue 
my  studies." 

A  Russian  lieutenant  begged  for  some  books  on 
jurisprudence  such  as  are  used  in  the  courses  of  "our 
Institute  for  the  study  of  neurology  and  psychology." 

An  oflficer  in  control  of  the  Langensalza  camp  li- 
brary wrote:  "Our  camp  is  very  large,  and  there  is  a 
continual  and  extraordinary  demand  for  books.  Pop- 
ular scientific  books  and  books  on  social  questions 
are  most  in  demand." 

"Where  no  specific  request  has  been  made,"  said 
Dr.  Wright,  "we  have  sent  books  of  a  varied  char- 
acter. For  the  common  soldiers  elementary  school 
books  and  simple  reading  books,  scientific  primers, 
books  on  agriculture,  and  religious  books  and  the 


284  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

works  of  great  Russian  writers  have  been  selected. 
For  the  oflBcers  we  have  chosen  books  of  a  more  ad- 
vanced description,  embracing  every  conceivable 
branch  of  knowledge.  A  large  number  of  grammars 
and  dictionaries  have  also  been  sent,  and  are  in  con- 
tinual request.  Roughly  fifty  grammars  and  diction- 
aries have  been  dispatched  to  Altdamm  —  but  this 
is  a  mere  drop  in  the  ocean  when  one  considers  that 
many  of  the  camps  number  over  one  thousand  men. 
The  demand  for  special  books  of  study  has  as  far  as 
possible  been  complied  with,  but  in  a  few  cases  great 
difficulty  has  been  experienced  in  obtaining  what  is 
wanted  in  Russian.'* 

In  a  supplementary  manuscript  report,  Dr.  Wright, 
in  detailing  the  later  work  of  his  committee,  expressed 
the  hope  that,  whatever  be  thought  of  the  revolution 
in  Russia,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  for  a  single  in- 
stant that  these  prisoners  were  sufferers  for  the  good 
cause,  that  they  lost  their  liberty  as  fellow  workers 
with  the  English. 

From  every  prison  camp  in  Germany  and  Austria 
came  appeals  for  books  —  and  the  men  who  made 
them  did  not  wish  to  read  merely  to  kill  time;  they 
did  not  turn  to  books  as  a  narcotic  or  for  amusement 
—  they  desired  to  learn.  They  formed  classes,  with 
a  view  to  alleviating  their  captivity  by  instruction. 
The  Russian  prisoners  did  not  ask  for  novels,  but  for 
Russian  schoolbooks,  for  grammars  and  dictionaries 
of  foreign  languages,  for  works  on  political  economy 
and  the  economic  history  of  England,  for  treatises  on 


READING  IN  PRISON  CAMPS         285 

engineering,  agriculture,  and  other  applied  sciences. 
From  the  camp  at  Altdamm  came  requests  for  a 
Chinese  grammar,  works  on  chemistry,  electricity  and 
metallurgy,  an  English  grammar  and  reader.  In  a 
camp  near  Magdeburg,  Russian  books  on  mathe- 
matics and  physics  were  called  for. 

"I  write  to  tell  you,'*  said  one  prisoner,  "that  we 
have  in  our  camp  a  library  and  a  school,  but  we  are 
badly  in  need  of  manuals  for  primary  and  higher 
teaching.  We  would  gladly  receive  books  in  French, 
German,  and  English  as  well  as  in  Russian." 

From  Parchim  came  a  letter  dated  October  26, 
1917:  "Some  schoolmasters  working  in  the  camp 
schools  are  full  of  thoughts,  dreams,  and  plans  about 
the  work  they  shall  take  up  in  their  own  country 
after  the  war.  We  all  understand  that  the  question  of 
popular  education  will  change  in  a  radical  way  as  the 
result  of  the  general  position  in  Russia.  There  is  a 
wish  to  prepare  even  a  little  for  the  work  which  is 
anticipated.  The  American  technical  school  with  its 
method  of  teaching  chiefly  attracts  our  attention. 
As  far  as  time  allows  we  are  learning  the  books  before 
us  which  apply  this  method  to  Germany.  We  are 
very  anxious  to  learn  something  about  the  English 
schools,  which  it  appears  have  some  similarity  to  the 
American  schools.  Therefore,  I  venture  to  ask  you  to 
send  us  some  books  which  would  give  a  general  view 
of  methods  and  administration  of  English  schools, 
above  all,  elementary.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
you  will  find  such  a  book  in  Russian  and  especially 


286  B(30KS  IN  THE  WAR 

one  with  the  design  of  informing  us  on  this  point. 
I  have  begun  to  learn  the  English  language  and  I  hope 
that  in  a  few  months  I  shall  be  able  to  understand 
English." 

From  the  women's  barracks,  at  Havelberg,  Dr. 
Mary  Minkewitsch  wrote,  under  date  of  December 
4,  1917:  "If  possible,  do  send  us  some  magazines  on 
artistic  questions  and  music.  We  have  very  few 
books." 

From  Plassenburg,  a  lieutenant  sent  a  request  for 
a  history  of  England  and  a  Russian-English  diction- 
ary. A  prisoner  at  Bischofswerda  said  that  he  needed 
more  scientific  books;  that  he  had  become  interested 
in  experimental  psychology,  and  would  also  like  to 
have  a  copy  of  Clayden's  "Cloud  Studies."  The 
Committee  of  the  Prisoners'  Camp  at  Czersk,  at  the 
request  of  some  medical  men,  asked  for  Mackenzie's 
"Diseases  of  the  Heart,"  and  Hutchinson's  "Dis- 
eases of  Children."  The  Library  Committee  of  the 
Prison  Camp  for  Russian  officers  at  Burg,  near 
Magdeburg,  on  behalf  of  the  readers  expressed  "sin- 
cere thanks  for  the  continual  care  taken  in  sending 
them  spiritual  food  in  the  monotonous  life  in  the 
camp." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT 

Soldiers*  letters  afford  ample  evidence  of  the  preva- 
lent desire  for  reading  in  leisure  moments.  "A  Schol- 
ar's Letters  from  the  Front,"  written  by  Stephen  H. 
Hewett,  a  second  lieutenant  in  the  Royal  Warwick- 
shire Regiment,  published  posthumously,  contain 
several  passages  showing  the  writer's  literary  tastes: 

"In  the  trenches  and  out,  we  have  many  oppor- 
tunities for  writing  letters  and  for  thinking.  Instead 
of  doing  either,  I  find  myself  simply  devouring  litera- 
ture, which  I  thought  I  had  for  the  time  forsworn. . . . 

"Why  is  it  that  I  sit  here  like  a  mole,  with  news- 
paper on  the  table  and  candles  for  a  light,  only  pray- 
ing that  I  may  live  long  enough  to  finish  *  The  Gather- 
ing of  the  Clans'?  I  have  often  heard,  and  now  quite 
realize,  that  here  one  is  mainly  occupied  with  the 
thought  of  food  and  sleep :  but  in  my  own  case,  though 
we  have  been  shelled  to-day,  and  will  be  shelled  again 
to-morrow  and  the  day  after,  I  have  still  a  great 
hunger  for  reading.  Though  what  I  have  to  do  at 
present  even  with  a  book  about  my  favorite  poet,  or 
with  the  heaths  of  Dorsetshire  (for  I  am  also  deep  in 
'The  Return  of  the  Native'),  I  can't  for  the  life  of  me 
imagine.  .  . . 

"A  great  joy  for  me  during  the  last  fortnight  has 
been  the  reading  of  *Loma  Doone,'  which  I  am  quite 


288  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ashamed  to  say  I  have  never  read  before,  though  a 
finer  book  either  for  a  child  or  an  old  man,  or  any  one 
at  all,  could  hardly  be  imagined.  I  can't  remember 
ever  having  been  more  fascinated  by  any  book,  and 
can  well  imagine  now  why  so  many  people  re-read  it 
every  year  of  their  lives.  Our  young  Company  Com- 
mander, Captain  Bryson,  whom  I  like  and  admire  as 
much  as  any  one  I  have  yet  come  across,  has  read  it 
twelve  times,  and  he  is  only  twenty-one !  I  can  remem- 
ber starting  the  book  when  I  was  eight,  but  then  I 
was  fonder  of  games  than  of  reading." 

A  member  of  the  First  Canadian  Contingent  wrote 
home  in  the  spring  of  1915 :  "  There  is  one  thing  which 
I  believe  would  be  most  acceptable  and  would  not  be 
expensive,  and  that  is  a  supply  of  reading  material  in 
the  form  of  old  magazines  or  cheap  paper-covered 
books  of  all  kinds.  The  men  in  these  regiments  are  in 
many  cases  accustomed  to  reading,  and  in  billets  in 
the  long  evenings,  and  in  the  trenches,  they  have  a 
great  deal  of  spare  time,  and  I  know  welcome  a  book 
on  the  rare  occasions  when  it  can  be  got.  They  are 
passed  around  till  they  are  worn  out.  The  cheaper  the 
books  are,  the  better,  for  we  move  often,  and  such 
things  cannot  be  added  to  the  already  too  heavy 
packs." 

The  varying  literary  tastes  of  the  men  at  the  front 
are  brought  out  by  H.  G.  Wells  in  "Mr.  Britling." 
Hugh,  writing  to  his  father  about  life  in  the  trenches, 
says: 

"We  read,  of  course.  But  there  never  could  be  a 


Upper  :  British  Official  Photograph 


Lower  ;  French  Pictorial  Service 


WAR  8  CONTRASTS! 


No  sooner  was  the  upper  photograph  taken  at  the  Battle  of  Menin  Road 
than  every  one  had  to  run  to  cover 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    289 

library  here  big  enough  to  keep  us  going.  We  can  do 
with  all  sorts  of  books,  but  I  don't  think  the  ordinary 
sensational  novel  is  quite  the  catch  it  was  for  a  lot  of 
them  in  peace-time.  Some  break  toward  serious  read- 
ing in  the  oddest  fashion.  Old  Park,  for  example, 
says  he  wants  books  you  can  chew;  he  is  reading  a 
cheap  edition  of  *The  Origin  of  Species.'  He  used  to 
regard  Florence  Warden  and  William  Le  Queux  as 
the  supreme  delights  of  print.  I  wish  you  could  send 
him  Metchnikoff's  'Nature  of  Man'  or  Pearson's 
'Ethics  of  Free  Thought.*  I  feel  I  am  building  up  his 
tender  mind.  Not  for  me,  though,  Daddy.  Nothing 
of  that  sort  for  me.  These  things  take  people  differ- 
ently. What  I  want  here  is  literary  opium.  I  want 
something  about  fauns  and  nymphs  in  broad  low 
glades.  I  would  like  to  read  Spenser's  *  Faerie  Queene.* 
I  don't  think  I  have  read  it,  and  yet  I  have  a  very 
distinct  impression  of  knights  and  dragons  and  sor- 
cerers and  wicked  magic  ladies  moving  through  a  sort 
of  Pre-Raphaelite  tapestry  scenery  —  only  with  a 
light  on  them.  I  could  do  with  some  Hewlett  of  the 
'Forest  Lovers'  kind.  Or  with  Joseph  Conrad  in  his 
Kew  Palm-House  mood.  And  there  is  a  book — I  once 
looked  into  it  at  a  man's  room  in  London;  I  don't 
know  the  title,  but  it  was  by  Richard  Gamett,  and  it 
was  all  about  gods  who  were  in  reduced  circumstances 
but  amidst  sunny  picturesque  scenery  —  scenery 
without  steel,  or  poles,  or  wire  —  a  thing  after  the 
manner  of  Heine's  'Florentine  Nights.*  Any  book 
about  Greek  gods  would  be  welcome;  anything  about 


290  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

temples  of  ivory-colored  stone  and  purple  seas,  red 
caps,  chests  of  jewels,  and  lizards  in  the  sun.  I  wish 
there  was  another  *  Thais.'  The  men  here  are  getting 
a  kind  of  newspaper  sheet  of  literature  scraps  called 
The  Times  Broadsheets.^  Snippets,  but  mostly  from 
good  stuff.  They  're  small  enough  to  stir  the  appetite, 
but  not  to  satisfy  it.  Rather  an  irritant  —  and  one 
wants  no  irritant.  I  used  to  imagine  reading  was  meant 
to  be  a  stimulant.  Out  here  it  has  to  be  an  anodyne." 

The  general  tenor  of  this  fictitious  letter  is  sup- 
ported by  the  real  letters  of  an  American  member 
of  the  Foreign  Legion,  Henry  Weston  Famsworth, 
who  died  from  wounds  received  in  battle,  September, 
1915.  He  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  had  not  yet 
finished  Cramb's  book,  but  could  see  how  well  written 
it  was.  "I  don't  see  why  it  makes  the  Germans  any 
more  imderstandable  to  you.  It,  as  far  as  I  have  gone, 
draws  them  as  maddened  and  blinded  by  jealousy. 
I  wish  Cramb  could  have  lived  to  read  how  the 
English  and  French  are  fighting." 

To  his  brother  he  confided:  "Warm  things  are  nice 
to  have  and  books  are  interesting  to  read,  that  is 
granted.  But  if  you  come  in  from  four  hours'  sentinel 
duty  in  a  freezing  rain,  with  mud  up  to  your  ankles, 
you  do  not  want  to  change  your  socks  (you  go  out 
again  in  an  hour)  and  read  a  book  on  German  thought. 

^  These  broadsheets  were  published  by  the  London  Times  "  to  meet 
an  urgent  demand  from  soldiers  in  the  trenches  and  men  with  the  fleet 
for  the  best  literature  in  a  portable  form."  The  passages  were  selected 
by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  The  public  was  urged  to  enclose  the  broadsheets 
in  letters  to  their  men  at  the  front. 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    291 

You  want  a  smoke  and  a  drink  of  hot  rum.  I  say  this 
because  several  times  I  have  been  notified  that  there 
were  packages  for  me  at  the  paymaster's  office.  To 
go  there  hoping  for  such  things,  and  receive  a  dry 
book  and  a  clean  pair  of  socks  has  been  known  to 
raise  the  most  dreadful  profanity.  Don't  dwell  on  this. 
It's  only  amusing  at  bottom."  He  says  that  "the  only 
kick  he  has  about  mail"  is  that  Life,  which  he  had 
much  enjoyed,  had  stopped  coming.  He  read  Charles 
Lamb,  "Pickwick,"  Plutarch,  a  lot  of  cheap  French 
novels,  and  "War  and  Peace"  over  again,  which  he 
hopes  his  mother  will  re-read.  In  his  opinion,  Tolstoy, 
even  more  than  Stendhal,  arrives  at  complete  expres- 
sion of  military  life.  He  asks  his  people  to  send  him 
from  time  to  time  any  novel,  either  in  French  or  Eng- 
lish, that  they  may  find  interesting.  "Books  are  too 
heavy  to  carry  when  on  the  move.  The  state  of  the 
German  mind,  Plato,  or  Kant,  are  not  necessary  for 
the  moment,  and  I  have  read  Milton,  Shakespeare, 
and  Dante."  In  one  letter,  written  as  they  were  mo- 
mentarily expecting  to  be  called  into  action,  he  notes 
that  his  friend  is  very  calm  and  is  reading  the  Weekly 
Times,  including  the  advertisements. 

Another  Legionnaire  and  contemporary  of  Farns- 
worth  at  Harvard,  Victor  Chapman,  though  not 
essentially  a  bookish  man,  has  left  in  his  letters  evi- 
dence of  the  effect  reading  had  upon  him  while 
serving  in  the  American  Aviation  Corps.  May  14, 
1915,  he  writes:  "After  twenty  minutes  the  shooting 
lessened  and  we  turned  to  other  things  —  I  to  read- 


292  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

ing  Lamb,  whom  I  found  tedious  till  I  hit  the  'Dis- 
sertation on  Roast  Pig.'"  A  few  days  later  he  "at- 
tacked the  'Autocrat/"  but  felt  he  had  to  read  such 
a  lot  to  get  a  little  nutrition  that  he  thought  it  hardly 
worth  while. 

A  fellow  Ugionnaire  says  that  Chapman  "received 
almost  all  the  Paris  newspapers  and  magazines,  not 
to  speak  of  novels  and  volumes  of  poetry.  One  day  he 
also  received  a  book  from  America.  Chapman  undid 
the  parcel,  and  buried  himself  in  his  cabin;  when  he 
came  out  some  hours  later  he  was  joyful,  exuberant; 
he  had  read  at  a  sitting  the  anti-German  book  that 
his  father  had  published  m  New  York  to  enlighten 
those  fellows  over  there."  The  book  was  the  one  en- 
titled "Deutschland  iiber  Alles;  or  Germany  Speaks; 
a  collection  of  the  utterances  of  representative  Ger- 
mans in  defense  of  the  war  policies  of  the  Father- 
land." 

Chapman  later  tells  his  father  that  he  thinks  the 
book  capital;  that  he  "had  seen  one  or  two  of  those 
fool  remarks,  but  not  by  any  means  the  greater  part. 
I  hope  it  sells,  for  it  shows  up  their  craziness  so  won- 
derfully well.  I  have  been  reading  my  Galsworthy 
again;  a  collection  of  English  verse  by  a  Frenchman, 
bad  as  a  selection  of  verse,  but  still  interesting;  a 
short  story  by  Alfred  de  Vigny,  and  your  'Homeric 
Scenes.*  Strange  and  violent  ends  some  of  the  books 
of  Frise  have  come  to.  Outside  our  cabin  door  I  found, 
for  cleaning  the  gamelleSy  the  pages  of  the  'Swiss 
Family  Robinson'  in  French;  while  yesterday,  before 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    293 

another  cabin,  I  found  pages  of  'Quentin  Durward/ 
also  in  French.  British  authors  are  not  the  only  suffer- 
ers, however.  The  third  volume,  yet  intact,  except  the 
back  cover,  of  the  *  Meditations  of  St.  Ignatius'  is 
placed  over  the  stove  for  lighting  the  pipes." 

In  another  letter  he  reports  finding  relaxation  from 
war  by  reviewing  the  requirements  for  admission  to 
the  Harvard  Dental  School  and  talking  over  exami- 
nations with  a  comrade  who  was  thinking  of  taking 
up  dentistry  when  he  was  through  with  aviation.  He 
adds  that  he  enjoys  the  New  York  Tribunes  which 
are  being  sent  him  frequently,  as  they  keep  him  a  bit 
in  touch  with  America,  even  though  they  are  three 
weeks  old  when  they  arrive 

"Letters  from  Flanders,"  by  Lieutenant  A.  D. 
Gillespie,  an  Oxford  man,  presents  some  interesting 
side  lights  on  the  subject  of  reading  matter  at  the 
front. 

The  writer  says  that  between  eating,  sleeping,  and 
writing  he  finds  little  time  to  read,  but  managed  in 
the  first  months  of  service  to  get  through  Dante's  *'  In- 
ferno," and  asks  that  his  copy  of  "Paradise  Lost" 
be  sent  him  from  home,  together  with  Scott's  "Bride 
of  Lammermoor,"  or  any  other  of  Scott's  works  in  a 
cheap  edition  —  "in  fact  anything  solid,  for  I  don't 
think  sixpenny  novels  would  go  down  so  well  at 
present.  ...  A  Sphere  or  an  Illustrated  [London  News] 
would  be  interesting  to  me,  and  to  the  men  after- 
wards. ...  I  have  got  H.  S.  Merriman's  *  Velvet 
Glove'  to  read,  but  so  far  I  seem  to  have  been  busy 


294  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

digging,  eating,  or  sleeping.  .  .  .  [M erriman]  does  n't 
perhaps  go  very  deep,  but  he  can  tell  a  rattling  good 
story,  which  many  of  those  modem  psychological 
novelists,  with  their  elaborate  analysis  of  character 
and  of  sensation,  quite  fail  to  do.  .  .  .  Merriman 
talks  of  the  *  siren  sound  of  the  bullet,  a  sound  which 
the  men,  when  they  have  once  heard  it,  cannot  live 
without';  but  I  don't  think  I  shall  want  you  to  fire 
volleys  under  my  window  to  put  me  to  sleep  when  I 
get  home.  .  .  . 

"I  wanted  to  get  some  French  newspapers,  but  I 
could  find  only  an  old  Matin,  with  nothing  in  it  ex- 
cept translations  from  the  London  papers.  .  .  . 

"I  got  hold  of  a  German  paper  yesterday;  it  had  a 
short  account  of  a  football  match  in  Berlin,  so  did 
a  French  paper  of  one  in  Paris  the  other  day.  But 
what  interested  me  was  to  notice  that  they  gave  very 
fairly  and  accurately  the  British  Admiralty's  report 
of  one  day's  operations  in  the  Dardanelles,  except 
that  they  multiplied  the  number  of  our  dead  by  four. 
I  know  this  because  I  happened  to  have  noticed  the 
figures;  and  so  had  another  subaltern.  That  is  just 
typical  of  their  system  in  all  their  reports.  They  tell 
as  much  truth  as  they  think  necessary  to  hide  their 
lies  —  or,  rather,  tell  as  many  lies  as  they  think  their 
public  can  reasonably  swallow.  .  .  . 

"I  have  got  hold  of  a  book  of  Tolstoy's  stories. 
There's  something  very  charming  about  them,  they 
are  so  direct  and  simple;  and  in  the  same  book  one  has 
sketches  of  Sevastopol  during  the  siege,  —  curious 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    295 

reading  just  now,  when  we  are  doing  our  best  to  give 
the  Russians  what  we  fought  to  prevent  them  getting 
sixty  years  ago.  I  once  read  them  before  in  French, 
and  I  think  I'm  right  in  saying  that  he  does  n't  men- 
tion the  British  once  —  it's  always  the  French,  and 
yet  we  all  have  the  habit  of  thinking  that  we  did  all 
the  fighting  in  the  Crimea." 

At  another  time  he  writes; 

"I  wish  you  would  give  me,  as  a  birthday  present, 
Gibbon  in  Everyman's.  Send  out  a  couple  of  volumes 
at  a  time;  then  I  can  get  rid  of  them  as  I  read  them. 
For  even  though  it  takes  time  and  men  and  ships  to 
force  the  Dardanelles,  I  think  the  story  of  Constanti- 
nople will  be  taken  up  again  where  it  was  left  in  1455. 

"The  Sphere  never  comes  now.  I  don't  mind  for 
myself,  because  I  always  see  it  in  the  mess,  but  if  you 
are  ordering  it,  it  ought  to  come,  and  the  men  might 
like  to  see  it.  Send  me  on  two  copies  of  Forbes- 
Mitchell's  'Reminiscences  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,* 
(Macmillan's  one  shilling  series).  He  was  a  sergeant 
in  the  93d,  and  I  remember  that  at  Sunderland  two 
copies  which  I  gave  my  platoon  were  very  popular. 
.  .  .  And  if  you  will  give  it  to  me  for  a  birthday  pres- 
ent, I  should  like  to  read  a  book  which  has  just  come 
out,  'Ordeal  by  Battle,'  by  F.  S.  Oliver;  he  used  to 
write  a  good  deal  for  the  Round  Tabby  which,  by  the 
way,  I  have  not  seen  lately.  Send  me  the  current 
number  and  others  as  they  come  out  ...  I  used  to 
take  it  regularly,  but  I'm  afraid  I  have  missed  several 
quarters  since  last  August." 


296  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  anonymous  "Letters  of  a  Soldier,  1914-1915,'* 
written  by  a  French  artist  to  his  mother  (London, 
Constable,  1917),  are  full  of  references  to  the  influ- 
ence of  books  and  reading  in  actual  warfare.  The  fol- 
lowing extracts  show  how  he  at  least  carried  out  the 
injunction  of  an  eminent  French  military  authority. 
Colonel  Emile  Manceau,  who  at  the  very  height  of 
hostilities  said:  "Let  us  read,  let  us  give  much  time 
to  reading." 

**Aug.  6,  1914.  What  we  miss  is  news;  there  are 
no  longer  any  papers  to  be  had  in  this  town. 

**Aug.  26. 1  was  made  happy  by  Maurice  Barres's 
fine  article,  *rAigle  et  le  Rossignol,'  which  corre- 
sponds in  every  detail  with  what  I  feel. 

*'Sept.  21.  To  sleep  in  a  ditch  full  of  water  has  no 
equivalent  in  Dante,  but  what  must  be  said  of  the 
awakening,  when  one  must  watch  for  the  moment  to 
kill  or  be  killed ! 

*'Oct.  23. 1  have  re-read  Barres's  article,  'I'Aigle 
et  le  Rossignol.'  It  is  still  as  beautiful,  but  it  no  longer 
seems  in  complete  harmony. 

"Oct.  28.  I  am  glad  that  you  have  read  Tolstoy: 
he  also  took  part  in  war.  He  judged  it;  he  accepted 
its  teaching.  If  you  can  glance  at  the  admirable 
*War  and  Peace,'  you  will  find  pictures  that  our 
situation  recalls.  It  will  make  you  understand  the 
liberty  for  meditation  that  is  possible  to  a  soldier  who 
desires  it. 

'*Jan.  13,  1915. 1  did  not  tell  you  enough  what 
pleasure  the  Revues  hebdomadaires  gave  me.  I  found 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    297 

some  extracts  from  that  speech  on  Lamartine  which  I 
am  passionately  fond  of.  Circmnstances  led  this  poet 
to  give  to  his  art  only  the  lowest  place.  Life  in  general 
closed  him  round,  imposing  on  his  great  heart  a  more 
serious  and  immediate  task  than  that  which  awaited 
his  genius. 

*'Jan.  17.  What  surpasses  our  understanding  (and 
yet  what  is  only  natural)  is  that  civilians  are  able  to 
continue  their  normal  life  while  we  are  in  torment. 
I  saw  in  the  Cri  de  Paris,  which  drifted  as  far  as  here, 
a  hst  of  concert  programmes.  What  a  contrast!  How- 
ever, mother  dear,  the  essential  thing  is  to  have 
known  beauty  in  moments  of  grace. 

"Jan.  19. 1  have  received  two  parcels;  the  *  Chan- 
son de  Roland'  gives  me  infinite  pleasiu*e  —  particu- 
larly the  Litroduction,  treating  of  the  national  epic 
and  of  the  Mahabharata  which,  it  seems,  tells  of  the 
fight  between  the  spirits  of  good  and  evil. 

"Fe6.  2.  I  am  delighted  by  the  Reviews.  In  an 
admirable  article  on  Louis  Veuillot  I  noticed  this 
phrase:  'O  my  God,  take  away  my  despair  and  leave 
my  grief!*  Yes,  we  must  not  misunderstand  the 
fruitful  lesson  taught  by  grief,  and  if  I  return  from 
this  war  it  will  most  certainly  be  with  a  soul  formed 
and  enriched. 

"  I  also  read  with  pleasure  the  lectures  on  Moli^re, 
and  in  him,  as  elsewhere,  I  have  viewed  again  the 
solitude  in  which  the  highest  souls  wander.  But  I 
owe  it  to  my  old  sentimental  wounds  never  to  suffer 
again  through  the  acts  of  others. 


298  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

**Fe6.  4.  Dear,  I  was  reflecting  on  Tolstoy's  title 
*War  and  Peace.'  I  used  to  think  that  he  wanted  to 
express  the  antithesis  of  these  two  states,  but  now 
I  ask  myself  if  he  did  not  connect  these  two  contraries 
in  one  and  the  same  folly  —  if  the  fortunes  of  human- 
ity, whether  at  war  or  at  peace,  were  not  equally  a 
burden  to  his  mind. 

*'Feh.  6.  Mother  dear,  I  am  living  over  again  the 
lovely  legend  of  Sarpedon;  and  that  exquisite  flower  of 
Greek  poetry  really  gives  me  comfort.  K  you  will  read 
this  passage  of  the  '  Diad '  in  the  beautiful  transla- 
tion by  Lecomte  de  I'lsle,  you  will  see  that  Zeus  utters 
in  regard  to  destiny  certain  words  in  which  the  divine 
and  the  eternal  shine  out  as  nobly  as  in  the  Christian 
Passion.  He  suffers,  and  his  fatherly  heart  undergoes 
a  long  battle,  but  finally  he  permits  his  son  to  die  and 
Hypnos  and  Thanatos  are  sent  to  gather  up  the  be- 
loved remains. 

"Hypnos  —  that  is  Sleep.  To  think  that  I  should 
come  to  that  —  I  for  whom  every  waking  hour  was  a 
waking  joy,  I  for  whom  every  moment  was  a  thrill  of 
pride !  I  catch  myself  longing  for  the  escape  of  Sleep 
from  the  tumult  that  besets  me.  But  the  splendid 
Greek  optimism  shines  out  as  in  those  vases  at  the 
Louvre.  By  the  two,  Hypnos  and  Thanatos,  Sarpedon 
is  lifted  to  a  life  beyond  his  human  death;  and  as- 
suredly Sleep  and  Death  do  wonderfully  magnify  and 
continue  our  mortal  fate. 

"Thanatos  —  that  is  a  mystery,  and  it  is  a  terror 
only  because  the  urgency  of  our  transitory  desires 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    299 

makes  us  misconceive  the  mystery.  But  read  over 
again  the  great  peaceful  words  of  Maeterlinck  in 
his  book  on  death,  words  ringing  with  compassion 
for  our  fears  in  the  tremendous  passage  of  mor- 
tality. 

"March  3.  I  have  been  stupefied  by  the  noise  of 
the  shells.  Think  —  from  the  French  side  alone  forty 
thousand  have  passed  over  our  heads,  and  from  the 
German  side  about  as  many,  with  this  difference,  that 
the  enemy  shells  burst  right  upon  us.  For  my  own 
part,  I  was  buried  by  three  305  shells  at  once,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  innumerable  shrapnel  going  off  close 
by.  You  may  gather  that  my  brain  was  a  good  deal 
shaken.  And  now  I  am  reading.  I  have  just  read  in 
a  magazine  an  article  on  three  new  novels,  and  that 
reading  relieved  many  of  the  cares  of  battle. 

"March  11.  I  have  nothing  to  say  about  my  life, 
which  is  filled  up  with  manual  labor.  At  moments 
perhaps  some  image  appears,  some  memory  rises.  I 
have  just  read  a  fine  article  by  Renan  on  the  origins 
of  the  Bible.  I  found  it  in  a  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  of 
1886.  If  later  I  can  remember  something  of  it,  I  may 
be  able  to  put  my  very  scattered  notions  on  that 
matter  into  better  order. 

"March  17.  The  other  day,  reading  an  old  Revtie 
des  Deux  Mondes  of  1880,  I  came  upon  an  excellent 
article  as  one  might  come  upon  a  noble  palace  with 
vaulted  roof  and  decorated  walls.  It  was  on  Egypt, 
and  was  signed  Georges  Perrot." 

The  published  letters  of  the  late  Arthur  George 


800  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Heath,  fellow  of  New  College,  Oxford,  and  lieutenant 
in  the  Royal  West  Kent  Regiment,  show  that  he  was 
a  good  deal  of  a  bookworm.  He  writes  from  France 
that  he  is  quite  comfortable,  but  would  really  like  a 
little  literature.  "If  we  are  in  for  trench  work,  it  will 
come  in  handy,**  says  he.  "I  would  like  Belloc's 
'General  Sketch  of  the  Em-opean  War,*  and,  if  you 
would  not  mind  my  being  so  luxurious,  the  'Oxford 
Book  of  English  Verse'  in  as  small  a  size  as  you  can 
get  it.  ...  I  've  found  time  here  to  read  quite  a  lot  of 
novels,  mostly  very  bad  ones.  I  wonder  if  Turgenev 
would  be  good  for  the  trenches?  .  .  .  Don't  suggest 
that  I  should  read  *War  and  Peace.*  If  one  makes 
ambitious  plans  like  that,  one  certainly  gets  killed  in 
the  midst  of  them.  .  .  . 

"I  have  ploughed  through  Buchan's  'History  of  the 
War*  —  six  volumes,  and  no  end  of  names  you  can- 
not remember!  This  will  give  you  an  idea  of  the  leisure 
we  get  here  [in  reserve]  compared  with  what  was, 
and,  perhaps,  with  what  will  be.  The  'Oxford  Book 
of  English  Verse*  has  been  such  a  pleasure  in  the 
trenches.  I  don't  get  time  there  to  read  anything  long, 
and  a  little  poem  now  and  then  warms  the  vitals,  as 
the  old  lady  said  of  her  gin  and  water." 

In  a  letter  written  by  Harold  Chapin,  the  drama- 
tist, to  his  mother  and  found  in  his  pocketbook  after 
his  death,  occurs  this  paragraph: 

"Books  —  yes,  I  want  a  pocket  Browning  with 
everything  in  it!  Is  such  a  thing  to  be  had,  I  wonder? 
Of  course,  I've  got  sizable  pockets.  Still  it's  a  tall 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    301 

order.  Anyway,  I  want  'Paracelsus'  and  *Men  and 
Women'  particularly." 

In  an  earlier  letter  to  his  wife  he  had  asked  for 
"The  Revenge"  and  King  Henry's  speeches  —  "the 
one  about  England  and  the  one  beginning  *Upon  the 
King,'  and  the  charioteer's  speech  from  Euripides  in 
Gilbert  Murray's  translation.  O  Lord,  what  is  the 
play?  I  suppose  I  must  do  without  it.  Send  the 
others  at  once,  though.  This  is  really  important." 

R.  A.  L.,  the  author  of  "Letters  of  a  Canadian 
Stretcher-Bearer,"  has  a  number  of  references  to  read- 
ing at  the  front: 

"  When  I  read  the  American  magazines  —  or  rather 
read  the  ads.  —  I  just  ciche  to  be  back.  I  found  some 
new  'Penrod'  stories  and  also  some  'Wallingford' 
ones.  Oh,  Gee!  but  it's  fine  to  read  something  live 
again!  I've  got  hold  of  a  book  called  'Queed.'  .  .  . 

"  For  the  last  hour,  I  've  been  reading  the  By  slander , 
Sketch,  and  old  newspapers,  and  altogether  enjoying 
myself.  ... 

"What  must  be  the  general  make-up  of  a  person's 
mind  who  collects,  packs,  and  mails  all  the  way  from 
Canada  a  parcel  of  'literature'  for  the  boys  in  France 
—  consisting  of  Literary  Digests  dated  1912?  I  see 
some  one  has  done  it  here.  Queer,  eh! .  .  . 

"By  the  way,  will  you  find  out  if  there  are  any 
books  on  the  subject  of  trench  first-aid?  It  will  have 
to  be  some  that  are  written  since  the  war,  of  course. 
The  first-aid  books  generally  sold  are  no  good  for  up 
the  line,  as  they  don't  take  account  of  conditions 


302  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

under  which  the  work  has  to  be  done.  If  you  find  any- 
thing that  may  be  of  use,  I  should  like  to  have  it.  .  .  . 

"I  have  really  got  hold  of  a  Saturday  Post  with  a 
yam  by  Gardner  in  it.  Reading  matter  has  been  ter- 
ribly scarce  here  all  the  time.  To  have  a  Post  is  to  be 
in  real  luck  —  though  somehow  looking  at  the  'ads* 
and  things  always  makes  me  homesick.  .  .  .  It*s  all 
so  different,  like  going  on  leave;  the  fact  that  people 
have  comforts  and  luxuries,  can  be/ree,  hits  you  like 
the  concussion  of  a  shell." 

"Books  here  are  plentiful  enough  in  a  way,  and  I 
keep  getting  them  and  losing  them  by  lending,"  writes 
an  English  bookseller  while  in  service  in  France. 
"Anything  I  recommend  goes  steadily  round  the 
battalion,  and  I  hear  many  appreciative  remarks 
which  warm  the  heart  of  a  bookseller.  The  men  can 
read  excellent  stuff  when  it  is  put  before  them.  This 
fact  encourages  in  me  a  belief  held,  that  booksellers 
function  truly  when  they  sell  the  best  books  for  the 
book's  sake.  I  have  been  delighted  recently  with  a 
local  revival  of  interest  in  Shakespeare,  and  have 
watched  with  delight  the  progress  of  a  sergeant- 
major  through  *  Hamlet  *  —  the  wonder,  the  apprecia- 
tion of  something  great.  The  officers  are  all  keen  on 
modem  stuff.  Among  them  I  have  lost  a  Swinburne 
and  a  Yeats,  and  have  persuaded  another  that  he 
knows  little  of  modem  fiction  if  he  has  not  read  But- 
ler's'Way  of  all  Flesh.'"  ^ 

^  "It  is  singular  how  that  ruthless  book  makes  its  way  across  all 
frontiers,"  said  Arnold  Bennett  apropos  of  a  question  put  to  him  in 
Paris  in  1915. 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT    303 

In  commenting  upon  this,  another  bookman  writes: 
"My  own  experience  with  the  soldier  friends  I  have 
come  across  has  been  that  they  are  only  too  anxious 
to  find  worth-while  books;  that  they  would  rather 
find  another  form  of  recreation  than  waste  their  time 
on  unsatisfying  literature.  In  one  instance  where  I 
had  handed  a  man  a  copy  of  Arthur  C.  Benson's 
works  I  was  subsequently  asked  to  send  a  list  of  essay- 
ists who  were  worth  reading.  The  soldier  was  not  a 
*  high-brow*;  he  was  of  the  non-reader  type  and  had 
been  a  carpenter  by  trade.  Evidently  what  the  sol- 
diers want  most  of  all  is  a  reader's  guide." 


CHAPTER  XVn 
PICTURES  AND  POETRY 

After  a  Y.M.C.A.  Sunday  morning  service  at  the 
front  an  officer,  who  had  evidently  been  pursuing  his 
own  line  of  thought  as  he  sat  with  his  men,  remarked: 
"Do  you  know,  this  hour  has  been  a  very  wonderful 
one  for  me?  It  is  n't  that  the  service  itself  has  moved 
me  in  any  particular  way,  but  as  I  took  my  place  my 
eye  fell  on  that  picture.  It  took  me  back  to  the  nur- 
sery at  home,  and  all  the  while  I  have  been  in  this  hut 
the  memories  of  childhood  and  the  sanctities  of  home 
have  been  calling  in  my  heart."  The  picture  that  made 
such  a  deep  impression  was  an  ordinary  print  of 
Millais's  Bubbles. 

The  idea  of  supplying  pictures  to  soldiers  was  prob- 
ably a  new  one  even  to  the  people  most  interested  in 
the  welfare  and  comfort  of  the  men.  The  Y.M.C.A. 
authorities,  ever  anxious  to  have  even  a  hut,  bam, 
cellar,  or  dugout  suggest  thoughts  of  home  to  the 
men  who  were  using  it,  wanted  good  pictures  for  their 
"Quiet  Rooms,"  knowing  the  silent  influence  of  such 
furnishings  upon  all  who  spend  a  few  minutes  there 
in  reading  or  meditation.  Giving  the  men  pictures  to 
put  up  in  their  own  billets,  messes,  and  dugouts  had 
also  been  suggested. 

A  printed  appeal  for  the  support  of  this  special 
work  was  issued,  reading  in  part  as  follows:  "The  dis- 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  305 

play  of  crude  or  objectionable  pictures  has  increased 
of  late,  chiefly  because  in  many  places  there  is  little 
or  nothing  else  to  be  had.  If  you  could  spend  a  single 
day  amidst  the  desolation  and  monotony  of  a  modern 
battle-field,  or  out  in  the  wastes  of  sand  where  our 
armies  are  to  be  found  in  Egypt  or  Mesopotamia,  you 
would  understand  why  any  bit  of  color,  anything 
with  human  life  in  it,  is  so  eagerly  seized  upon  by  a 
soldier.  It  keeps  his  imagination  alive.  He  finds  it 
a  refuge  from  sheer  mental  and  spiritual  shipwreck. 
That  is  another  reason  why  we  should  send  him  the 
best,  and  plenty  of  it.  We  are  making  a  great  effort 
to  send  out  at  least  twenty  or  thirty  cartoons,  color 
prints,  black-and-white  drawings,  and  half-tone  re- 
productions for  the  decoration  of  each  center  where 
we  are  at  work.  We  hope  also  for  a  large  reserve  from 
which  to  supply  every  man  who  would  like  a  picture 
or  two  for  himself." 

Artists,  curators  of  art  galleries,  heads  of  poster 
departments  and  picture-publishing  firms,  editors  of 
popular  illustrated  weeklies,  chiefs  of  railway  and 
shipping  lines,  and  many  friends  in  various  walks  of 
life  responded  to  this  appeal  of  the  Y.M.C.A.,  the 
leaders  asking  those  interested  to  organize  a  canvass 
of  their  locality  for  a  suitable  collection.  Unframed 
pictures  were  deemed  best,  color  being  preferred  to 
black  and  white.  Drawings  of  animals,  coaching  and 
hunting  scenes,  garden,  woodland,  countryside,  sea 
and  land  drawings,  figure  studies,  heads,  studies  of 
children,  famous  art  gallery  series,  and  humorous 


S06  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

prints  were  gathered  together  and  sent  out  in  sets  or  in 
portfolios,  as  well  as  collections  of  good  pictures  from 
the  art  monthlies  and  supplements  to  Christmas  num- 
bers of  well-known  periodicals.  The  small  pictures 
were  found  useful  for  dugouts  and  billets  while  the 
larger  ones  served  for  the  huts  and  "Quiet  Rooms." 
Classical  and  modem  pictures  on  religious  subjects 
proved  much  in  demand.  Everything  was  sent,  in 
fact,  that  was  really  good  of  its  kind  and  that  would 
remind  the  men  of  home  and  country,  especially 
everything  that  would  bring  a  smile  to  their  faces  and 
wholesome  laughter  to  their  lips. 

The  hbrarian  at  Camp  Devens  conceived  the  idea 
of  collecting  illustrative  material  for  classroom  use 
and  wrote  to  several  librarians,  asking  that  suitable 
pictures  be  cut  from  magazines,  mounted,  and  sent 
to  the  camp  library.  Within  a  week  over  one  thousand 
mounted  pictures  were  available  for  reference  piu*- 
poses,  covering  such  a  wide  range  of  subjects  as  artil- 
lery, aviation,  camouflage,  commimication  (balloons, 
pigeons,  signaling,  telephone,  wireless),  field  hospitals 
and  kitchens,  map  drawing,  range-finding,  transporta- 
tion and  tunneling.  In  lieu  of  a  regular  filing-cabinet, 
wooden  packing-boxes  were  pressed  into  service. 

The  pictures  thus  collected  were  used  mainly  for 
exhibition  purposes,  green  burlap  stretched  across 
one  end  of  the  Hbrary  room  forming  the  exhibition 
surface.  The  men  coming  into  the  library  were  almost 
without  exception  attracted  to  the  exhibit  and  to  the 
books  placed  beneath.  Two  privates  were  known  to 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  307 

spend  most  of  their  leisure  time  on  Saturdays  looking 
over  this  changing  picture  collection.  On  Sundays  the 
soldiers  who  had  enjoyed  the  pictures  often  brought 
their  out-of-town  guests  to  look  at  them.  Some  of 
the  oflScers  spent  considerable  time  in  going  over  the 
collection  making  notes  on  the  possible  use  to  be 
found  for  the  different  pictures.  Loans  of  pictures  on 
trench  warfare,  wire  entanglements,  obstacles,  and 
kindred  subjects,  for  use  in  illustrating  lectures,  were 
frequent.  Diagrams  and  maps  were  also  in  much 
demand.  Even  postcards  illustrative  of  the  different 
war  fronts  were  wanted  for  use  in  the  radioscope. 

C.  Lewis  Hind,  the  art  critic,  in  his  book  "The 
Soldier  Boy,"  gives  an  incident  which  demonstrates 
the  eloquence  and  inspiration  of  a  good  picture.  A 
young  musician,  sub-lieutenant  in  the  Royal  Navy,  is 
described  at  home  on  leave,  sitting  in  his  London 
study,  gazing  at  a  large  photograph  of  Rembrandt's 
"Polish  Rider"  —  "that  unforgettable  picture,  a 
warrior  riding  forth  through  a  romantic  landscape, 
but  the  mission  of  this  rider  is  born  of  the  spirit,  not 
of  the  flesh:  he  rides  forth  for  right,  not  for  might." 
"That  picture  sustains  me,"  said  the  musician- 
soldier.  "I  return  here  for  another  look  at  it.  Its  mes- 
sage cannot  fade.  This  war  has  taught  me  that  a  pic- 
ture can  have  the  essence  of  immortality  and  can  help 
us  to  see  light  beyond  the  blackness  of  the  moment." 

Mr.  Hind  writes  of  another  soldier  who  would  will- 
ingly have  been  a  preacher-painter,  but  who  had  no 
talent.  He  had  made  a  laborious  copy  of  Watts's 


308  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Sic  Transit  Gloria  Mundi,  and  when  chided  for  cher- 
ishing so  sad  a  theme,  said,  "That  picture  is  a  re- 
minder to  me  of  the  Undying  Things."  He  himself 
later  met  death  gallantly  for  his  country.  When  Hind 
went  to  pay  a  visit  of  condolence  to  the  lad's  mother, 
he  visited  the  studio  again.  Looking  at  the  shrouded 
figure  of  the  dead  warrior  in  the  picture,  he  thought 
of  his  friend  beneath  French  soil.  Death  seemed  hate- 
ful; life  but  a  horrid  game  of  chance.  In  the  gathering 
twilight  the  gray  picture  grew  grayer.  "Why  did  he 
like  it.'*"  he  murmured.  From  a  presence,  felt  rather 
than  seen,  came  the  answer:  "Read  the  painted  words 
above  the  warrior": 

What  I  spent  I  had. 
What  I  saved  I  lost. 
What  I  gave  I  have. 

To  those  who  have  not  looked  into  the  matter, 
poetry  would  seem  to  have  as  little  place  at  the  front 
as  pictures.  But  James  Norman  Hall,  writing  in  the 
New  Republic  for  November,  1916,  on  "Poetry  under 
the  Fire  Test,"  recounts  in  this  connection  certain  ex- 
periences of  an  old  classmate  of  his,  Mason  by  name, 
who  had  joined  the  British  Army  and  gone  to  the  front. 

Mason  tells  of  his  return  to  the  front  line  about 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  a  rainy  autumn  day. 
His  way  leading  him  through  an  old  communication 
trench  filled  nearly  a  foot  deep  with  water,  he  fell 
into  a  short  sap  which  looked  like  the  entrance  to  a 
dugout.  Between  the  shell  explosions  he  heard  voices. 
Pausing  for  a  moment  to  listen,  he  discovered  that 
some  one  was  reading  aloud.  These  were  the  words: 


RT*^ 


-■'■■  M 

@  l,,i,  r„iiif'f„il  Film  Service 

THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY    UNION 

AN  ARMY  CLUB  FOR  COLLEGE  MEN  IN  PARIS 

Established  by  the  joint  action  of  a  score  of  American  colleges  and  universities 


?  r!     ?, 


b  « 
3  < 

t5 

Si 

«• 

iJ 

^ 

H 

o 

13 

h 

H 

O 

K 

J? 

O 

.^ 

S 

rs 

a 

» 

^ 

P 
tf 

^ 

o 

hi 

^ 

a 

P 

(H 

4> 

H 

^ 

55 

is 

Ph 

is  ^ 

H 

c^ 

!^ 

p 

;?; 

"o 

< 

o 

u 

-o 

HH 

a 

tf 

cS 

1^ 

^ 

S 

< 

is 

> 

H 

'3 

n 

s 

H 

a 

^ 

.s 

1-1 

b 

V 

s 

s 

O 

-< 

o 

o 

1 

;?; 

a 

"1 

J! 
B 

o 

*j 

-a 

V 

B 

< 

PICTURES  AND  POETRY  309 

**  Before  the  starry  threshold  of  Jove's  court 
My  mansion  is,  where  those  immortal  shapes 
Of  bright  aerial  spirits  live  insphered 
In  regions  mild,  of  calm  and  serene  air; 
Above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot. 
Which  men  call  earth;  and,  with  low-thoughted  care 
Confined,  and  pestered  in  this  pinfold  here. 
Strive  to  keep  up  a  frail  and  feverish  being. 
Unmindful  of  the  crown  which  virtue  gives, 
After  this  mortal  change,  to  her  true  servants. 
Amongst  the  enthroned  gods  on  sainted  seats." 

Poetry !  *'  Comus  " !  At  such  an  hour  and  under  such 
conditions!  Mason  confesses  that  the  circumstance 
so  affected  him  that  he  began  to  cry  Hke  a  baby.  But 
in  his  own  words:  "I  cried  for  pure  joy.  You  say  that 
you  would  want  to  forget  that  there  was  such  a  thing 
as  beauty  in  the  world.  Well,  I  had  forgotten.  My  old 
life  before  the  war  was  like  a  cast-off  garment  which 
I  had  forgotten  that  I  had  ever  owned.  The  life  of 
soldiering,  of  killing  and  being  killed,  of  digging 
trenches  and  graves,  seemed  to  have  been  going  on 
forever.  Then,  in  a  moment  —  how  is  one  to  tell  of 
such  an  awakening?  —  I  felt  as  the  Ancient  Mariner 
must  have  felt  when  the  body  of  the  albatross  slipped 
from  his  neck  and  fell  —  how  does  it  go?  —  *like  lead 
into  the  sea.'  What  I  am  trying  to  make  clear  to  you 
is  this:  without  realizing  it,  I  had  lost  my  belief  in  all 
beauty.  During  all  those  months  I  was  vaguely  aware 
of  the  lack  of  something,  but  I  did  n't  know  what  it 
was.  It  is  impossible  to  think  of  that  time  without  a 
shudder. 

"This  adventure  marked  the  beginning  of  what  I 


810  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

think  I  may  call  a  new  epoch  in  my  trench  experiences. 
The  seasons  of  fearful  depression  which  I  used  to  have 
were  past  and  gone,  although  the  life  was  just  as 
wretched  as  before.  At  night,  as  I  stood  on  sentry,  I 
would  recall  the  fragments  of  poems  I  knew  in  old 
days.  I  wrote  immediately  to  friends  in  London,  who 
prepared  for  me  a  little  trench  anthology  of  the  poems 
I  liked  best.  You  have  no  idea  what  a  comfort  they 
have  been.  I've  put  them  through  the  fire  test,  and 
they  have  withstood  it  splendidly." 

Hall  expressing  an  interest  as  to  the  selection,  his 
friend  handed  him  a  booklet  in  soiled  paper  covers. 
Loose  leaves  from  books  of  various  sizes  had  been 
sewn  together  into  a  little  volume  which  went  easily 
into  the  pocket  of  his  soldier's  tunic.  Among  others 
were  "Kubla  Khan,"  "Comus,"  "The  Ode  on  the 
Intimations  of  Immortahty,"  all  of  Keats's  odes  and 
"The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes,"  SheUey's  "Alastor,"  Hen- 
ley's "London  Voluntaries,"  and  some  selections 
from  the  nineteenth-century  sonnets  edited  by 
William  Sharp.  Hall  expressed  surprise  at  seeing 
several  poems  by  Francis  Thompson,  whom  he  had 
never  thought  of  as  a  soldier's  poet.  On  asking  his 
friend  why  Thompson  was  included,  Mason,  by  way 
of  answer,  took  the  volume  and  read  the  first  stanza 
of  "The  Poppy": 

"Heaven  set  lip  to  earth's  bosom  bare 
And  left  the  flushed  print  in  a  poppy,  there. 
Like  a  yawn  of  fire  from  the  grass  it  came 
And  the  hot  wind  fanned  it  to  flapping  flame." 


1* 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  311 

"You  have  n't  stood  on  sentry  day  after  day,  watch- 
ing the  poppies  grow  in  No-Man's  Land!  We  have  no 
need  of  war  verse  in  the  trenches.  What  we  do  need 
is  something  which  will  take  our  minds  off  the  horrors 
of  modem  warfare,  after  the  strain  is  relaxed." 

"Do  you  mean  to  say  that  all  of  you  fellows  out 
there  are  finding  solace  in  poetry?" 

"  Certainly  not.  I  merely  give  you  my  own  experi- 
ence. But  you  would  be  surprised  if  you  knew  how 
many  other  men  do  find  it  essential.  Since  that  night 
in  the  communication  trench  I've  been  making  in- 
quiries, very  cautiously,  of  course,  for  it  would  never 
do  to  let  some  of  the  men  know  that  one  has  such 
aesthetic  tastes.  Recently,  I  met  a  sergeant  major 
whose  experience,  slight  as  it  was,  bears  out  splen- 
didly this  one  of  mine.  Once,  he  said,  when  he  believed 
that  he  was  on  the  point  of  a  nervous  breakdown,  he 
remembered  suddenly  two  lines  from  Shakespeare: 

Night's  candles  are  burnt  out,  and  jocund  Day 
Stands  tiptoe  on  the  misty  mountain  tops.' 

"I  may  have  quoted  incorrectly,  although  I  think  I 
have  it  straight.  The  effect  upon  him,  he  said,  was 
really  miraculous.  His  battalion  had  been  in  the  first 
line  continuously,  for  two  weeks,  and  had  suffered 
heavy  casualties.  At  night  every  sandbag  in  the  para- 
pet had  appeared  to  be  a  distorted  human  counte- 
nance. The  men  who  are  killed  in  the  trench  are  placed 
on  the  parapets,  you  know,  until  there  is  an  oppor- 
tunity to  bury  them.  He  was  in  a  bad  way,  but  those 
two  lines  saved  him.  They  called  to  his  mind  a  picture 


312  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

of  some  place  which  he  was  sure  that  he  had  never 
seen,  but  one  of  such  great  beauty  that  he  forgot  the 
horrors  of  the  trenches.  They  became  a  tahsman  to 
him,  offering  just  the  reUef  he  needed  in  times  of 
great  mental  strain.  Another  fellow,  a  man  of  my  own 
company,  found  this  relief  by  repeating  Hood's  son- 
net on  Silence.  You  remember  it? 

"  'There  is  a  silence  where  hath  been  no  sound. 
There  is  a  silence  where  no  sound  may  be; 
In  the  cold  grave,  under  the  deep,  deep  sea. 
Or  in  wide  desert  where  no  life  is  found.' 

"It's  one  of  the  finest  sonnets  in  the  language,  to 
my  way  of  thinking;  but  imagine  a  soldier  repeating 
those  lines  to  himself,  under  shell  fire!  Odd,  is  n*t 
it?" 

"Odd?  That  is  hardly  the  word.  If  any  one  but 
you  had  told  me  of  it,  I  should  have  said  it  was  ex- 
tremely improbable." 

"My  dear  fellow,  that  is  simply  because  you  have 
never  had  occasion  to  put  poetry  to  the  test  of  fire. 
Come  out  and  join  us!  It  is  worth  all  the  hazards  to 
discover  for  one's  self  that  Beauty  is  Truth,  Truth 
Beauty.  Yes,"  he  added,  "by  Jove!  it  is  worth  it!" 

Private  No.  940,  in  his  book  "On  the  Remainder 
of  our  Front,"  describes  the  rain,  mud,  and  filth  of  the 
trenches.  "I  have  finished  'The  Inviolable  Sanctuary' 
and  I  can't  get  out  another  book,  as  my  haversack  is 
so  beastly  slimy.  .  .  .  Everything  was  too  filthy  for 
writing.  In  the  afternoon  I  endeavored  to  forget  my 
surroundings   by  plunging   into   the   intricacies  of 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  313 

Browning,  and  between  the  showers  I  got  through 
two  thousand  lines  of  *The  Ring  and  the  Book.'" 

In  a  letter  to  his  mother,  a  Canadian  subaltern, 
speaking  of  the  night  his  trench  was  bombarded, 
tells  of  the  fierce  desire  that  came  to  him,  after  seeing 
five  of  his  men  die,  not  only  to  do  all  the  damage  he 
could  to  the  enemy,  but  to  preserve  at  all  costs  the 
lives  of  the  remaining  men.  Rushing  from  bay  to  bay 
of  the  sector,  he  exhorted  them  to  be  steady  and  cool, 
cursing  them  when  they  were  not,  his  one  thought, 
his  one  idea,  to  hold  them  firm,  while  all  the  time 
running  through  his  mind,  crowding  out  fear,  exhaus- 
tion, and  thought  of  self,  were  the  words  in  Kipling's 
"If": 

"If  you  can  force  your  heart  and  nerve  and  sinew 
To  serve  your  turn,  long  after  they  have  gone. 
And  so  hold  on,  when  there  is  nothing  in  you 
Except  the  Will,  which  says  to  them  *  Hold  On.' " 

As  further  evidence  that  poetry  has  stood  the  fire 
test,  let  me  quote  a  few  passages  from  Lieutenant 
Gillespie's  "Letters  from  Flanders."  In  one  of  his 
letters  home  he  speaks  of  "a  famous  epitaph  of  Plato 
on  a  friend  who  died  young,  which  plays  on  the  con- 
trast between  the  morning  and  the  evening  star. 
Shelley  has  translated  it,  so  far  as  I  can  remember: 

"  "Thou  wast  the  morning  star  among  the  living 
Ere  thy  pure  light  had  fled. 
Now  thou  art  gone,  thou  art  as  Hesperus  giving 
New  splendour  to  the  dead  —  * 

but  the  Greek  is  simpler  and  better." 


314  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

On  the  eve  of  the  attack  in  which  Gillespie  was 
killed,  he  wrote  his  father  a  long  letter  ending  thus: 

"It  will  be  a  great  fight,  and  even  when  I  think  of 
you,  I  would  not  wish  to  be  out  of  this.  You  remember 
Wordsworth's  'Happy  Warrior*: 

" '  Who  if  he  be  called  upon  to  face 
Some  awful  moment  to  which  heaven  has  joined 
Great  issues,  good  or  bad,  for  human  kind. 
Is  happy  as  a  lover,  and  is  attired. 
With  sudden  brightness  like  a  man  inspired.' 

"I  never  could  be  all  that  a  happy  warrior  should 
be,  but  it  will  please  you  to  know  that  I  am  very 
happy,  and  whatever  happens,  you  will  remember 
that." 

The  anonymous  officer,  whose  letters  to  his  mother 
were  published  under  the  title  "From  Dugout  and 
Billet,"  says  that  in  the  case  of  men  with  traditions 
to  maintain,  breeding  and  training  constitute  a  kind 
of  armor. 

"Who  misses  or  who  wins  the  prize. 
Go  strive  and  conquer  if  you  can; 
But  if  you  fall  or  if  you  rise. 
Be  each,  pray  God,  a  gentleman. 

"We  may  funk  it  for  a  moment.  Sometimes  we  do. 
But  it  does  n't  matter.  The  main  thing  is  not  to  show 
that  you  are  afraid,  and  to  act  as  if  you  were  n't.  .  .  . 
By  the  way,  it's  rather  curious,  isn't  it,  that  men 
should  be  more  deeply  addicted  to  poetry  than 
women?  There's  hardly  one  of  us  who  has  n't  got  his 
favorite  battered  volume  of  poetry  somewhere  handy. 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  315 

Kipling  bestrides  this  fighting  terrain  like  a  Colossus 
and  lies  in  our  pockets  in  small  editions;  but  I've 
come  across  a  lady  on  the  battle-ground  —  a  slim 
little  collection  of —  guess  —  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox!  " 

"Just  between  you  and  me  (don't  tell  my  lieuten- 
ant)," writes  a  private  from  Camp  Lewis,  "I  much 
prefer  to  sit  down  to  a  little  '  Cymbeline,'  *  Hamlet/ 
or  'Lear'  any  day  than  grind  over  the  stupid  I.D.R. 
My  beloved  books,  over  which  I  was  crazy  before  I 
came  here,  seem  now  more  precious  than  before. 
Truly  I  think  it  has  enabled  me  to  keep  up  my  spirits 
and  health  more  than  anything  else,  to  have  a  couple 
of  hours  free  occasionally  to  sit  in  a  comfortable 
library  and  read.  And  I  have  discovered  that,  in  pro- 
portion as  this  camp  experience  is  vital,  all  the  great 
works  of  literature  have  a  different  —  a  larger,  deeper, 
finer  —  meaning  than  ever  before.  The  terrible  war 
has  a  thousand  and  one  compensations  which  only 
gradually  make  their  appearance  as  time  goes  on. 

"I  don't  know  how  it  is  in  other  libraries,  but  in 
ours  there  is  an  unusually  fine  collection  of  poetry. 
It  is  comparatively  large  and  surprisingly  well  se- 
lected. That  was  the  last  thing  I  expected  of  such  a 
library,  but  was  happily  surprised.  In  addition  to 
the  standard  poets,  there  are  such  books  as  Stephen 
Phillips's  'Paolo  and  Francesca,'  D'Annunzio's 
*Francesca  da  Rimini,'  and  a  great  variety  of  con- 
temporary poets.  Fiction  predominates,  as  it  should 
in  such  a  hbrary,  and  embraces  most  of  the  standard 
authors  complete.  There  are,  however,  a  great  many 


816  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

curiosities  on  the  fiction  shelves  —  many  of  them 
should  be  called  relics  —  representing,  I  suppose,  the 
gifts  of  well-meaning,  but  untutored  patriots.  I  am 
constantly  surprised  by  the  new  (to  me)  titles  of  such 
recondite  volumes.  Let  me  assure  you  with  all  my 
heart  that  anything  you  or  the  library  in  which  you 
work  may  do  for  the  camp  libraries  is  work  well  di- 
rected and  of  unquestioned  service  to  the  men  who 
find  themselves  in  the  army.  I  know!" 

One  of  the  first  requests  at  a  Red  Cross  receiving 
house  was  for  Omar  Khayyam.  The  oflScer  who  got 
the  "Rubaiyat"  for  him  thought  that  probably  the 
boy  had  seen  a  quotation  from  it  in  some  cigarette 
advertisement,  but  found  that  he  really  knew  much 
of  the  poem  by  heart. 

A  patient  at  Camp  Zachary  Taylor  Base  Hospital 
was  much  taken  with  W.  E.  Henley's  lines: 

"  Out  of  the  night  that  covers  me. 

Black  as  the  Pit  from  pole  to  pole, 
I  thank  whatever  gods  may  be 
For  my  unconquerable  soul. 


"It  matters  not  how  strait  the  gate 

How  charged  with  pimishments  the  scroll, 
I  am  the  master  of  my  fate; 
I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul." 

The  patient  expressed  an  interest  in  Kipling  and  the 
librarian  gave  him  a  copy  of  "If"  that  she  had  had 
typewritten.  He  read  it  several  times  and  then  com- 
mented: "That's  pretty  good.  There's  more  reason 
than  rhyme  in  it." 


03 

Q 

< 

O 

u 

H 
< 

H 

K 
H 

O 
H 

Q 
t3 
O 

<5 

O 

I— < 

<1 
« 

12: 
o 

Q 
« 
O 
C5 

o 

H 
<1 

« 

I— < 
Q 

O 

CO 

O 

« 

w. 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  317 

Poetry,  after  fiction,  undoubtedly  stands  high  as 
a  military  favorite,  Kipling  leading,  with  Robert 
Service  a  close  second.  "Service  sounds  as  if  he  were 
talking  to  you,'*  a  man  in  Camp  Wadsworth  Hospital 
said  to  the  librarian  in  explaining  the  popularity  of 
poetry  among  soldiers.  "I  wish  that  I  had  enough 
poetry  in  me  to  thank  you  for  this,"  said  an  American 
soldier  to  a  Y.M.C.A.  worker  in  France  who  had 
loaned  him  a  copy  of  the  "  Oxford  Book  of  English 
Verse." 

During  one  of  his  rounds  about  Camp  Doniphan 
a  stem  and  sturdy  old  general  asked  the  librarian 
for  James  Whitcomb  Riley's  "The  Prayer  Perfect.'* 
Modem  poetry  was  asked  for  by  a  man  of  evident 
literary  antecedents,  and  poetry  to  copy  and  send 
home  to  his  wife  was  wanted  by  a  man  who  later 
asked  if  he  could  buy  a  copy  of  Longfellow  to  take 
home  when  he  got  his  discharge.  Curiously  enough, 
the  most  consistent  Shakespeare  reading  in  one  camp 
was  done  by  a  negro  labor  battalion. 

While  helping  unpack  a  consignment  of  books  in 
one  of  the  big  camps,  an  enlisted  man  came  across  a 
copy  of  "Evangeline."  "I  haven't  read  that  in  a 
long  time,"  he  said,  and  borrowed  the  book  on  the 
spot.  "I  certainly  did  enjoy  it,"  was  his  comment  on 
bringing  it  back. 

Even  the  Montauk  hydro-aeroplane  station  asked 
for  poems,  especially  Kipling's  poems  of  the  sea.  In 
answer  to  an  inquiry  as  to  what  in  the  world  naval 
officers  studying  hydro-aviation  could  find  of  value 


318  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

to  them  in  the  poetry  of  Kipling,  a  naval  officer  re- 
plied: "All  sea-going  men  can  learn  lots  of  valuable 
things  from  Kipling's  poems.  The  sea-poems  are  a 
textbook.  A  sailor  who's  been  aromid  the  world  can 
take  *The  Song  of  the  Cities'  and  explain  things  that 
no  landlubber  could  possibly  understand.  A  ship- 
builder or  an  engineer  on  a  ship  can  point  out  many 
interesting  things  in  the  story,  'The  Ship  that  Found 
Herself,'  that  go  completely  over  the  average  reader's 
head.  Kipling  is  the  only  poet  in  existence  who  under- 
stands the  navy  and  the  men  who  are  building  the 
navy.'* 

The  experience  of  an  English  nurse  in  France 
amplifies  still  further  the  testimony  as  to  the  sal- 
utary influence  of  poetry  in  the  tragic  days  of  the 
war. 

"Out  here,"  writes  a  V.A.D.,  in  "From  Cambridge 
to  Camiers,"  "there  is  not  much  time  for  reading,  but 
poetry  has  resumed  something  of  its  ancient  p>ower  to 
console  and  strengthen  and  revive  the  spirit  of  man. 
Novels,  though  useful  enough  when  one  is  sick,  are 
either  too  exciting  or  too  incongruous  with  our  daily 
work,  and  we  have  no  time  nor  energy  for  books  that 
demand  close  study.  But  in  the  long  watches  of  the 
night,  when  the  sick  or  wounded  are  sleeping  quietly 
around  us,  or  in  our  hours  off  duty,  when  we  can  lie 
for  a  little  while  on  the  cliff  among  the  sea-pinks  and 
the  tail  white  daisies  and  bask  in  the  warm  sunshine 
and  the  salt  sea-breeze,  then  is  the  time  to  take  out 
a  thin  volume  of  Rupert  Brooke's  or  James  Elroy 


PICTURES  AND  POETRY  319 

Flecker's  and  lose  ourselves  in  the  beauty  that  is 
never  old  and  never  tires.  My  sister  sent  me  last 
Christmas  a  book  of  *  Georgian  Poetry,'  and  in  it 
there  is  much  delight  for  tired  minds.  Here  is  Walter 
de  la  Mare's  'Music/  and  John  Drinkwater's  'Of 
Greatham,'  with  its  remembrances  of  the  beloved 
land  from  which  for  a  while  we  are  exiles.  There  is 
John  Masefield's  unforgotten  picture  of  the  'Wan- 
derer.' Even  better,  I  think,  I  do  love  James  Elroy 
Flecker's  song  of  the  *  Gates  of  Damascus,'  with  its 
vision  of  the  four  Grand  Wardens  leaning  on  their 
spears,  and  the  four  roads  that  lead,  one  to  gay 
Aleppo,  one  to  Mecca  the  holy,  one  to  the  burning 
desert,  and  one  to  the  enchanted  sea.  And  yet,  power- 
ful as  is  the  spell  of  these,  I  turn  more  often  to  the 
thin  volume  of  Rupert  Brooke's  *1914,'  and  find 
there  solace  and  refreshment.  It  has  the  thirst  for 
beauty  that  marks  the  other  Georgian  poets,  the 
delight  in  every  quick  and  vivid  movement  of  the 
senses,  but  it  has  something  more  too  —  a  perception 
of  the  soul  of  the  war  that  lifts  it  into  the  realm  of 
great  and  tragic  things.  More  than  any  other  poet  of 
the  time,  Rupert  Brooke  interpreted  and  embodied 
the  spirit  in  which  our  men  have  gone  to  this  fight  — 
not  from  blind  lust  of  battle  or  desire  of  conquest, 
not  as  slaves  driven  to  the  slaughter  by  a  military 
tyrant,  but  with  clear  eyes  and  steady  hands  keenly 
conscious  of  the  joy  of  life,  of  all  that  they  are  relin- 
quishing, yet  willing  and  unafraid.  To  us  here,  who 
have  so  often  to  tend  the  dying  and  grieve  for  the 


S20  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

dead,  it  is  good  to  know  how  friendly  Death  looked 
to  one  who  was  so  soon  to  face  it." 

In  the  early  part  of  the  war  a  Scotch  lad  often 
expressed  the  wish  that  if  he  fell  his  grave  should  be 
marked  with  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  "Requiem." 
When  he  was  killed,  one  of  the  sergeants  furnished 
the  lines  from  memory  and  had  them  engraved  on  the 
cross  over  his  last  resting-place: 

"Under  the  wide  and  starry  sky. 
Dig  the  grave  and  let  me  lie. 
Glad  did  I  live  and  gladly  die. 
And  I  laid  me  down  with  a  will. 

"This  be  the  verse  you  grave  for  me: 
Here  he  lies  where  he  longed  to  he: 
Home  is  the  sailor,  home  from  sea. 
And  the  hunter  home  from  the  hiU" 


CHAPTER  XVni 

THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES 

Living  his  uneventful  life  before  the  war,  the  average 
Englishman,  says  Donald  Hankey,  could  hardly  be 
said  to  possess  a  philosophy  at  all,  but  rather  a  code 
of  honor  and  morals,  based  partly  on  tradition  and 
partly  on  his  own  observation  of  the  law  of  cause  and 
efiFect  in  the  lives  of  his  associates.  When  war  came 
and  the  average  Englishman  found  himself  in  the 
ranks,  he  discovered  that  his  easy-going  philosophy 
did  not  quite  fit  in  with  the  new  demands  made  on 
him.  So  he  had  to  try  and  think  things  out.  But 
this  was  by  no  means  easy.  He  had  read  very  little 
that  was  of  any  help  to  him  now.  He  could  remember 
nothing  but  a  few  phrases  from  the  Bible,  some  verses 
from  Omar  Kliayydm,  and  a  sentence  or  two  from 
the  Latin  Syntax  —  one  of  which  was  Dulce  et  de- 
corum est  pro  patria  mori.  But  when  he  found  him- 
self in  a  support  trench,  heavily  shelled  by  the 
enemy,  Omar,  who  had  lived  before  the  day  of  high 
explosives,  was  of  little  comfort,  and  "it  didn't 
seem  quite  playing  the  game"  to  turn  to  the  Bible 
then  after  having  neglected  it  so  long.  Though  he 
could  not  have  defined  his  attitude  of  mind,  he  wav- 
ered between  fatalism  and  the  gospel  of  the  "will  to 
prevail,"  and  was  near  to  becoming  a  disciple  of 
Nietzsche. 


S22  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

To  illustrate  how  dogma  has  lost  its  hold  on  the 
common  mind,  the  Reverend  Neville  S.  Talbot,  in  his 
"Thoughts  on  Religion  at  the  Front,"  tells  of  a  song 
he  often  heard  at  the  informal  concerts  given  by  the 
soldiers.  It  is  called  "The  Preacher  and  the  Bear," 
and  he  quotes  it  with  apologies  to  the  easily  shocked. 
The  song  is  about  a  colored  minister  who,  against  his 
conscience,  went  out  shooting  on  a  Sunday  and  on 
going  home  met  a  grizzly  bear.  Taking  refuge  up  a 
tree,  this  is  his  prayer: 

"O  Lord,  who  delivered  Daniel  from  the  lions'  den. 
Also  Jonah  from  the  timimy  of  the  whale  —  and  then 
Three  Hebrew  chilluns  from  the  fiery  furnace. 
As  the  good  Book  do  declare  — 
O  Lord,  if  you  can't  help  me,  don't  help  that  grizdy  bear!" 

"Here,"  says  Mr.  Talbot,  "is  an  epitome  of  a  far- 
spreading  incredulity  about  the  Bible.  It  is  the  Higher 
Criticism  in  its  crudest  popular  form,  and  men  are  at 
the  mercy  of  it.  I  have  known  a  mess  of  officers  engage 
in  argument  about  the  Bible  with  a  skeptical  Scots 
doctor,  cleverer  than*  they.  As  old-fashioned  believers 
in  the  Bible,  they  had  to  admit  being  thoroughly 
*  strafed'  in  the  argument,  yet  they  had  no  way  out, 
such  as  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  Bible 
affords." 

This  reminds  one  of  the  sailor  to  whom  the  words 
in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  "there  was  no  more  sea," 
were  a  source  of  acute  misery.  While  unlettered  he 
was  a  deeply  religious  man,  and  also  a  literalist,  and 
he  found  the  thought  of  a  world  without  a  sea  almost 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES      323 

intolerable.  The  Bible  was  to  be  believed,  but  what 
was  to  become  of  the  sailors? 

No  belligerent  government  deliberately  placed  ob- 
stacles in  the  way  of  Bible  distribution,  and  from  the 
latest  reports  available  the  oflBces  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  were  still  open  in  Berlin,  Vi- 
enna, and  Constantinople  —  the  most  unlikely  places. 
The  National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland  reports  that 
in  1917  its  oflSice  was  still  open  in  Hungary,  though 
its  work  was  being  carried  on  under  famine  conditions. 
The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  has  distributed 
over  7,000,000  Bibles,  Testaments,  and  portions,  not 
only  among  the  British  troops  and  the  Allied  forces, 
but  also  in  the  very  ranks  of  the  enemy.  In  this  most 
savage  of  wars,  waged  with  the  most  devilish  of 
methods  and  begetting  an  unparalleled  intensity  of 
hatred,  we  have  had  cases  of  Russian  prisoners  in  Ger- 
many being  supplied  with  Bibles  printed  on  German 
presses,  paid  for  by  American  money  sent  through 
British  channels!  The  demand  of  the  Bulgarian  sol- 
diers in  the  trenches  exhausted  the  stock  of  the 
American  Bible  Society  in  Sofia.  Many  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  in  Chinese  were  sent  from  Shanghai  for 
Chinese  workers  in  France. 

The  American  Bible  Society,  which  had  had  experi- 
ence in  war-time  distribution  of  the  Bible  in  the 
Mexican  War,  the  Civil  War,  the  Russo-Japanese 
War,  the  Spanish-American  War,  and  in  the  recent 
disturbances  on  the  Mexican  border,  has  been  hard  at 
work  supplying  the  troops  of  to-day. 


S24  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Since  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the 
war,  the  Society  has  issued  in  its  Army  and  Navy 
editions  2,231,831  volumes  of  Scriptures.  The  major- 
ity of  these  have  been  free  gifts  to  the  chaplains  of  the 
United  States  Army  and  Navy  for  distribution  among 
the  troops,  and  to  the  War  Work  Council  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  Special  rates,  often  much  below  the  cost 
of  manufacture,  were  made  on  all  the  other  copies. 
The  special  grant  of  a  million  copies  of  New  Testa- 
ments to  the  Army  and  Navy  through  the  Y.M.C.A. 
was  fulfilled  in  spite  of  all  the  difficulties  due  to  the 
fuel,  transportation,  and  climatic  conditions  from 
which  the  country  suffered  during  the  winter  of 
1917-18.  The  two  chief  problems  before  the  Society 
were  to  secure  the  necessary  funds  and  to  meet  the 
growing  demand.  There  was  a  rush  of  orders  from 
many  widely  different  sources.  The  Society's  presses 
were  running  for  weeks  up  to  two  o'clock  at  night. 

The  copies  were  sent  to  the  troops,  first  of  all 
through  the  nine  home  agencies  of  the  Society,  most 
of  which  made  special  efforts  to  distribute  them.  Next 
they  used  auxiliary  societies,  such  as  the  Massachu- 
setts and  the  Maryland  Bible  Societies.  Then  the 
Y.M.C.A.,  with  whom  the  American  Bible  Society 
had  an  understanding,  drew  very  largely  upon  its 
resources. 

The  directors  of  the  Society  felt  that  every  enlisted 
man  in  the  Army  and  Navy  ought  to  have  a  Testa- 
ment, or  a  Gospel,  or  a  whole  Bible  for  his  own  use. 
Some  of  the  men  were  glad  to  get  them  and  willing 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES      325 

to  pay  for  them,  but  to  others  they  had  to  be  given 
free.  At  one  of  the  forts  in  New  York  Harbor,  before 
the  men  were  transferred  to  concentration  camps, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers  called  in  one  day  and 
personally  asked  for  Testaments. 

"The  Bible  is  certainly  the  best  preparation  that 
you  can  give  to  an  American  soldier  going  into  battle 
to  sustain  his  magnificent  ideal  and  faith,"  wrote 
Marshal  Foch. 

It  was  felt  that  the  best  way  to  give  a  soldier  a 
Bible  or  a  Testament  was  to  have  it  come  from  the 
people  in  his  own  home,  his  own  town,  or  his  own 
church.  Many  saw  to  it  that  he  got  one  before  he  left. 
The  Society  worked  through  these  channels,  and  sup- 
plied a  large  number  of  individuals,  churches,  Sunday 
schools  and  local  organizations.  The  Northeastern 
Department  of  the  Society's  Atlantic  Agency  in 
Pennsylvania  secured  $400  from  the  churches  of 
Scranton  with  which  to  buy  Bibles  for  the  soldiers 
going  from  that  city  and  region.  For  the  special  use 
of  the  Maryland  troops,  the  Maryland  Bible  Society 
ordered  10,000  copies  of  the  Scriptures  with  a  letter 
inserted  from  President  Wilson,  written  at  the  request 
of  Dr.  Goucher,  president  of  the  Maryland  Bible 
Society.  The  Massachusetts  Society  had  a  letter  from 
the  Governor  of  the  State  inserted  in  its  books  and 
gave  many  thousand  copies  to  its  troops.  The  New 
York  Bible  Society,  operating  in  New  York  City  and 
Harbor,  distributed  25,000  Testaments  and  portions, 
containing  a  similar  letter  from  Colonel  Roosevelt. 


326  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  constitution  of  the  American  Bible  Society 
prevents  its  placing  anything  within  the  covers  of 
the  Bible  except  an  identification  page.  As  the  reserve 
funds  of  the  Society  were  exhausted,  it  was  com- 
pelled to  raise  more  money  by  a  special  campaign, 
in  order  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  books  already  issued, 
and  make  further  provision  for  future  issues. 

Exclusive  of  the  work  of  the  Continental  Bible 
Societies,  from  which  figures  are  not  available,  a 
conservative  estimate  places  the  number  of  Bibles, 
Testaments,  and  portions  distributed  by  the  Ameri- 
can, British,  and  Scottish  Bible  Societies  at  fifteen 
million  copies.  "Never  before  in  human  history," 
says  Dr.  William  I.  Haven,  "were  there  so  many 
copies  of  any  one  book  in  the  hands  of  armies  as 
during  this  war  —  not  only  our  King  James  Version, 
but  Jewish  Scriptures,  selected  and  bound  in  khaki, 
for  the  soldier's  pocket;  the  Douay  Testament,  got 
out  by  the  Chaplains*  Aid  Society  of  the  Catholic 
War  Council;  Moravian  textbooks;  and  courses  of 
reading  prepared  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association." 

The  Pocket  Testament  League,  with  an  oflBce  in 
the  Witherspoon  Building,  Philadelphia,  did  an 
exceptional  work  through  army  chaplains  and  the 
Y.M.C.A.  It  issued  various  editions  of  the  Testament 
in  different  bindings.  One  of  these  has  the  President's 
message  to  the  troops  on  Bible  reading;  another  has 
messages  on  the  same  subject  from  General  Pershing 
and  Colonel  Roosevelt.  There  is  also  an  "emergency" 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES      327 

list  of  selections  for  the  soldier  to  read  when  he  is 
lonely,  troubled,  or  in  danger.  Inside  the  back  cover 
is  a  page  marked  "My  Decision,"  which  thousands 
of  soldiers  and  sailors  have  signed.  The  son  of  a  titled 
woman,  a  young  officer  serving  at  the  front,  was 
killed  and  so  mangled  that  the  only  means  of  identi- 
fication was  the  "decision"  signature  in  an  "Active 
Service"  Testament  found  on  his  person. 

This  is  President  Wilson's  admonition  to  the  men 
of  the  Army  and  Navy: 

"The  Bible  is  the  Word  of  Life.  I  beg  that  you  will 
read  it  and  find  this  out  for  yourselves  —  read,  not 
little  snatches  here  and  there,  but  long  passages  that 
will  really  be  the  road  to  the  heart  of  it.  You  will  not 
only  find  it  full  of  real  men  and  women,  but  also  of 
things  you  have  wondered  about  and  been  troubled 
about  all  your  life,  as  men  have  been  always;  and  the 
more  you  read  the  more  it  will  become  plain  to  you 
what  things  are  worth  while  and  what  are  not;  what 
things  make  men  happy  —  loyalty,  right  dealing, 
speaking  the  truth,  readiness  to  give  everything  for 
what  they  think  their  duty,  and,  most  of  all,  the  wish 
that  they  may  have  the  real  approval  of  the  Christ, 
who  gave  everything  for  them;  and  the  things  that 
are  guaranteed  to  make  them  unhappy  —  selfishness, 
cowardice,  greed,  and  everything  that  is  low  and  mean. 

"When  you  have  read  the  Bible  you  will  know 
that  it  is  the  Word  of  God,  because  you  will  have 
found  it  the  key  to  your  own  heart,  your  own  happi- 
ness, and  your  own  duty." 


S28  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Colonel  Roosevelt's  message  to  the  men  of  the 
forces  was  as  follows: 

"The  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  are  fore- 
shadowed m  Micah*s  verse  (Micah  vi,  8):  'What 
more  does  the  Lord  require  of  thee  than  to  do  justice, 
and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?' 

"Do  justice;  and  therefore  fight  valiantly  against 
the  armies  of  Germany  and  Turkey,  for  these  nations 
in  this  crisis  stand  for  the  reign  of  Moloch  and  Beelze- 
bub on  this  earth. 

"Love  mercy;  treat  prisoners  well,  succor  the 
wounded,  treat  every  woman  as  if  she  were  your  sis- 
ter, care  for  the  little  children,  and  be  tender  to  the 
old  and  helpless. 

"Walk  humbly;  you  will  do  so  if  you  study  the  life 
and  teachings  of  the  Saviour. 

"May  the  God  of  justice  and  mercy  have  you  in 
his  keeping." 

"I  am  glad  to  see  that  every  man  in  the  Army  is 
to  have  a  Testament,"  wrote  General  Pershing.  "Its 
teachings  will  fortify  us  for  our  great  task." 

A  representative  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
Mission  in  France  reports  that  one  day  he  went  to 
see  a  poor,  unfortunate  soldier  in  jail  and  left  with  him 
a  New  Testament.  The  following  week  he  went  again 
to  see  him.  He  was  asked  for  copies  for  the  other 
prisoners,  and  a  Bible  for  the  guard.  "It  was  really 
impressive,"  the  pastor  writes,  "to  see  that  poor 
fellow  behind  the  iron  gate  smiling  at  me  and  sending 
me  greetings  of  thanks  and  gratitude." 


fe  Colonel  t.  J    Parker 

THESE  WOMEN  SERVED  BOOKS  AS  WELL  AS  DOUGHNUTS 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES      329 

Among  the  negroes  employed  there,  says  the  same 
pastor,  was  one  who  already  knew  a  little  of  the  New 
Testament.  On  Easter  Monday  he  was  seen  crying 
like  a  child.  He  had  in  his  hand  the  book  which  had 
been  given  him  and  a  letter. 

"What  have  you  got,  my  lad?"  asked  the  pastor. 

"I  heard  wife  dead  in  Madagascar,  and  me  read 
the  New  Testament." 

Another  negro  from  New  Caledonia  wrote: 

"I  ask  you  for  some  more  many  copies  of  the  Gos- 
pel for  comrades,  and  one  Saint  Mathieu  for  me.  Me 
doing  well,  —  and  you,  my  pastor,  and  your  son,  and 
your  daughter? 

"I  am  your  son  who  loves  you. 

"Danis." 

An  English  soldier  was  sitting  on  his  bed  reading 
his  Bible,  when  several  gathered  round,  and  one  said, 
"Don't  keep  it  all  to  yourself,  lad.  If  you  read  it 
aloud,  we  can  all  hear."  He  had  quite  a  good  audience 
as  he  read  several  chapters.  After  that,  Bible  read- 
ing in  that  hut  became  a  regular  thing,  and  the  young 
man  was  frequently  called  upon  to  explain  passages. 

The  Red  Cross,  Y.M.C.A.,  Knights  of  Columbus, 
and  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association,  working  side 
by  side  for  the  welfare  of  the  soldiers,  did  much  to 
break  down  denominationalism.  A  story  is  told  of 
a  Catholic  priest  asking  a  Y.M.C.A.  secretary  for 
a  Protestant  Testament  to  take  to  a  Jewish  boy  in  the 
hospital. 


830  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

A  pastor  who  always  carried  with  him  a  few  Testa- 
ments for  distribution,  gave  one  to  a  young  soldier. 
Months  later  the  pastor  was  visiting  a  hospital  and 
was  accosted  by  this  same  soldier,  who,  coming  up, 
grasped  him  by  the  hand  most  cordially  and  said : 

"You  do  not  know  me,  do  you?  But  I  remember 
you.  In  fact  I  shall  never  forget  you.  I  owe  you  a 
debt  I  can  never  repay.  You  remember  that  some 
months  ago  you  were  distributing  New  Testaments  at 

the  station  of  X ,  and  you  gave  me  one.  I  put  it 

in  my  bag,  and  when  I  got  out  to  the  front,  in  the 
midst  of  the  awful  scenes  of  destruction,  facing  danger 
and  death,  when  one  did  not  know  what  the  moment 
would  bring,  I  foimd  time  to  read  the  little  book  you 
gave  me.  I  am  a  changed  man.  And  it  is  your  little 
book  that  has  done  it.  I  do  not  know  how  I  can  ever 
thank  you  enough!" 

A  member  of  the  Kansas  cavalry  said:  "I  have 
neglected  my  Bible,  but  I  am  now  beginning  to  find 
out  that  missing  the  reading  of  the  Book  is  just  like 
forgetting  to  brush  one's  teeth.  It  seems  to  make 
an  imclean  feeling  come  upon  me.  So  I  am  now  keep- 
ing up  my  reading  pretty  well." 

A  private  at  Camp  Custer  wanted  a  Testament, 
although  he  could  neither  read  nor  write.  "I  can't 
read,"  he  said,  "but  I  like  to  feel  one  in  my  pocket." 

Mrs.  Alice  Hegan  Rice,  while  serving  as  hospital 
librarian,  offered  a  novel  to  a  former  bartender  before 
she  noticed  that  he  was  absorbed  in  the  Bible.  "No," 
he  said,  without  looking  up,  "I  don't  want  to  read 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES      331 

nothing  'til  I  see  how  this  here  turns  out."  One  of  the 
books  most  frequently  asked  for  in  the  hospital  was 
"  that  little  red  book,"  as  a  certain  pocket  edition  of 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John  was  designated. 

"During  the  terrible  epidemic  of  influenza  that 
struck  our  camp  with  such  violence,"  writes  an  Amer- 
ican army  chaplain,  "I  came  into  closest  personal 
touch,  day  by  day,  with  the  poor  victims  of  its  rav- 
ages and  I  know  positively  of  a  number  of  young  men 
whom  I  sincerely  believe  were  kept  alive  only  by  the 
comfort  and  fortitude  received  from  reading  a  Vest 
Pocket  Testament.  And  many  others  were  strength- 
ened and  supported  for  the  journey  through  the 
Valley  of  the  Shadow  by  the  blest  promises  on  which 
they  leaned  so  heavily." 

A  soldier  of  the  Second  Pennsylvania  Infantry  said 
to  his  chaplain:  "This  is  not  the  kind  of  Bible  I 
wanted."  When  asked  what  kind  he  did  want,  he 
replied:  "I  want  an  Old  Testament  with  the  Lord's 
Prayer  in  it."  The  chaplain  told  him  that  it  had  not 
yet  been  published.  The  soldier  said  he  thought  that 
was  what  he  wanted.  "At  least,  I  want  the  part  of 
the  Bible  that  I  can  read  every  day.'*  When  the 
chaplain  told  him  that  he  could  read  any  part  of  it 
daily,  the  soldier  was  not  satisfied.  He  said,  "My 
mother  used  to  read  me  one  part  of  the  Bible  every 
day  and  that  is  what  I  want."  The  chaplain  then 
began  quoting  the  23d  Psalm.  "That's  it.  That's 
what  I  want,"  he  cried. 

Certainly  in  the  wars  of  old  the  thunder  of  the 


832  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Psalms  was  an  antidote  for  the  thunder  of  battle. 
In  the  Crusades,  there  were  but  few  battles  against 
the  Saracens  in  which  there  was  not  sung  the  Venite 
of  the  95th  Psalm,  the  battle-cry  of  the  Templars. 

In  1380,  when  the  Tartar  hordes  were  advancing  on 
Moscow,  Demetrius,  Grand  Prince  of  Russia,  ad- 
vanced to  meet  the  invaders  on  the  banks  of  the  Don. 
After  reading  the  46th  Psalm,  "God  is  our  refuge  and 
strength,"  he  plunged  into  the  fight  which  ended  in 
the  defeat  of  the  Tartars. 

The  Psalms  were  the  war-shout  of  John  Sobieski. 
From  them  the  Great  Armada  took  its  motto.  They 
were  the  watchwords  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
Cromwell,  the  battle-hymns  of  the  Huguenots  and  the 
Cevennois. 

At  the  battle  of  Courtrai  in  1587  the  Huguenots 
chanted  the  24th  and  25th  verses  of  the  118th  Psalm. 
"The  cowards  are  afraid,"  cried  a  young  courtier  to 
the  Due  de  Joyeuse,  who  commanded  the  Roman 
Catholics;  "they  are  confessing  themselves."  "Sire," 
said  a  scarred  veteran,  "when  the  Huguenots  behave 
thus,  they  are  ready  to  fight  to  the  death." 

Cromwell's  "Invincibles"  were  a  body  of  men  who, 
as  Carlyle  says,  had  the  fear  of  God,  but  knew  no 
other  fear.  No  plundering,  drinking,  disorder,  or  im- 
piety was  allowed.  Tradition  says  that  every  soldier 
in  Cromwell's  army  was  provided  with  a  small  Bible. 
This  was  not  a  complete  Bible,  but  a  sixteen-page 
pamphlet  consisting  of  appropriate  quotations  from 
the  Genevan  Version  of  the  Scriptures  and  entitled 


4$  THE  g 

SOUL  DIE  RS5 

Pocket  Bible  :        ^ 

Containing  the  moft(if  not  all)tho{c  |* 
places  contained  in  holy  Scripture,  §> 
which  <3oe  fhewthe  qualifications  of  his  §> 
inner  man,  that  is  a  fu  Sculdier  to  fight  ^ 
the  Lords  Battels,  boiKbefore  he  fight, 
in  the  fight,  and  after  the  fight  j 

Which  ScriDturesare  reduced  to  fe- 

verall  h.eads,  and  fitly  applyed  to  the 
Sonldiers  fcvcrail  occafion?,  and  fo  may 
fupply  the  want  of  the  whole  Bible-, 
which  a  Souldier  cannot  conveniently 
carry  about  him : 

And  may  bee  alio  ufefull  for  any 

Chriftian  to  meditate  upon,  now  in      |^ 

this  miferable  time  of  Wane.  ^ 

. -— ^ 

Imprimatur,      £dm.  Calamy:      ^ 

"-~~- ' iS^ 

'^of.x^.  This  Book  of  the  Law  fliall  not  depart  out  S^ 
of  thy  mouth  jbut  thou  {halt  meditate  therein  day  ^^ 
and  night,  that  thou  maift  obfcrve  to  doe  accor-  %> 
ding  to  all  that  is  written  therein,  for  then  thou  S31 
(hale  make  thy  way  profpcrous,  and  have  good  - 
fuccciTc. 


•A     Printed  at  London  by  GS,  and  RjT,  for 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  THE  CROMWELLIAN  BIBLE 


The  Souldiers  pocket  Bible. 


Jl  Sofildier  mtiji  mt  doe  vflek^dl^, 
n-«*  ••  *  ^^'^.'^^  Hen  theu  g<  cQ:  ouc  with  ihe 
^  \iV  '^-  againft  ihmc  enemies, 

f^^j^  kecpe    ihcc   then    from  all 
^^S^^^  wickcdnefTc. 
Luke 3.14  ^^''^       The  fouWicrs  likewifc  dc- 

jr.anded  of  him,  faying,  and  what  {hall  we 
doec*  And  he  faid  unio  ihem,  doe  violence 
10  no  man,  neuhcr  accufc  any  fatflyjand  be 
content  wiih  your  wages. 
.    M        And  if  you  will  nor  for  I  his  obey  me,  you 

^AV*  *   ^^  "^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^"^  before  your  ene- 
mies, 
Dcut.s8,        ^"'^  ^^*  \^ox^  fha!!  caufe  thee  to  fall  bc- 
jj,  fore  thine  enemies,  ifeou  (hale  come  out  one 

way  arainft  ihcm,  and  fly  fevcn  waves  be- 
fore them. 

A  SouUiernfuft  he  vaVinKifor  Co^t  Cdufe, 
«       _       Be  valiant  and  fisnc  tfzc  Loids  bat- 

£  -iaji.lo.       S^  fitong,    and  let  us  be  valiant  for 
x2«*        ourpeople^andfor  the  Cities  of  our  God» 

and 

ONE  PAGE  OF  THE  CROMWELLIAN  BIBLE 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES      333 

the  "Soldier's  Pocket  Bible,"  presumably  issued  in 
1643.  The  selected  texts  refer  to  warfare  and  were 
intended  to  nerve  the  men  for  battle.  In  1693,  during 
the  war  with  France,  the  pamphlet  was  reprinted 
under  the  title,  "The  Christian  Soldier's  Penny 
Bible,"  with  the  quotations  altered  in  accordance 
with  the  King  James  version. 

In  Great  Britain's  Civil  War  the  beginning  of  a 
battle  was  frequently  heralded  by  the  singing  of 
Psalms.  This  was  true  of  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor. 
As  his  troopers  bore  the  body  of  John  Hampden  to 
his  grave,  they  chanted  the  90th  Psalm,  which  since 
1662  has  had  its  place  in  the  burial  service  of  the 
Prayer  Book. 

The  Psalms  were  the  battle-cry  of  the  Huguenots 
in  1704  when  Cavalier  won  a  brilliant  victory.  It  was 
with  the  singing  of  the  48th  Psalm  that  Roland,  one 
of  the  Camisard  leaders,  routed  the  Royalists  at  the 
Bridge  of  Salindres  in  1709. 

Reading  and  believing  as  did  these  warriors  of  old 
produced  men  of  the  type  of  Sir  Richard  Grenville, 
who,  with  his  hundred  men  and  his  little  forty-ton 
frigate,  fought  against  fifty-three  Spanish  ships  of  war 
manned  with  ten  thousand  men.  Sir  Richard's  last 
words  have  been  lovingly  preserved  for  us  by  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh: 

"Here  die  I,  Richard  Grenville,  with  a  joyful  and 
quiet  mind,  for  that  I  have  ended  my  life  as  a  true 
soldier  ought  to  do,  that  hath  fought  for  his  country, 
queen,  reUgion,  and  honor.  Whereby  my  soul  most 


334  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

joyfully  departeth  out  of  this  body,  and  shall  always 
leave  behind  it  an  everlasting  fame  of  a  valiant  and 
true  soldier  that  hath  done  his  duty  as  he  was  bound 
to  do." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS 

In  the  recreation  room  of  an  English  miUtary  hos- 
pital, I  was  watching  a  group  of  wounded  men  play- 
ing billiards.  One  very  young  lad  who  had  lost  both 
legs  was  taking  his  turn  in  the  game  from  the  point 
of  vantage  of  a  wheeled  chair.  I  started  to  talk  with 
him,  but  he  saw  at  once  that  sympathy  was  upper- 
most in  my  mind.  "Oh,"  said  he,  trying  to  help  me 
out,  "I'm  not  so  badly  off.  My  pal's  the  one  to  be 
pitied.  He  lost  both  his  eyes!" 

Anything  rather  than  that,  was  the  feehng  of  the 
fighting  man.  Nothing  is  more  heartrending  than  the 
sight  of  the  wounded  in  the  hospitals,  with  eyes  band- 
aged, their  fate  not  yet  known  to  themselves.  Here 
you  see  men  with  one  eye  gone  and  the  other  much 
injured  —  clinging  to  the  belief  that  the  remaining 
one  is  or  will  be  quite  sound. 

The  old  idea  that  responsibility  ended  with  the 
return  of  the  soldier  to  private  life  has  given  place  to 
a  new  sense  of  duty  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 
It  is  now  felt  that  it  is  not  enough  to  heal  the  soldier's 
wounds  and  give  him  a  pension;  he  must  be  re- 
educated and  equipped  for  his  return  to  civil  life  so 
that  he  may  be  as  useful  as  possible  to  himself  and 
to  his  country. 

With  this  end  in  view,  England,  France,  Italy,  and 


336  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

the  United  States  have  introduced  into  their  con- 
valescent hospitals  practical  instruction  for  wounded 
soldiers.  Actual  manual  work  is  being  utilized  not 
only  for  its  good  effect  upon  both  mind  and  body, 
but  for  its  real  vocational  and  commercial  value  to 
the  soldier  upon  his  return  to  civil  life.  Courses  in 
light  metal  work,  mechanical  drawing,  woodwork, 
clay  modeling,  automobile  and  internal  combustion 
engine  work,  shoe  repairing,  netting,  gardening, 
poultry-keeping,  rabbit-keeping,  bee-keeping,  and 
floriculture  are  being  offered  to  the  wounded  soldier 
just  as  soon  as  he  is  able  to  imdertake  physical  and 
mental  exertion.  The  result  is  that  already,  in  many 
instances,  though  handicapped  by  loss  of  limb  and 
even  sight,  the  reeducated  soldier  has  been  able  to 
take  a  position  often  more  remunerative  than  the 
one  he  held  before  enlistment. 

The  task  of  providing  books  for  the  blinded  soldiers 
is  one  that  requires  no  small  amoimt  of  thought  and 
care.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  the  first  place,  that 
these  men  are  beginners  in  reading  with  the  fingers, 
and  that  it  is  necessary  to  supply  them  with  books 
where  fully  contracted  Braille  is  employed.  This 
means  that  they  have  to  familiarize  themselves  with 
many  abbreviations.  Technical  handbooks  must  be 
prepared  to  aid  them  in  mastering  the  various  occu- 
pations which  it  is  essential  for  them  to  learn  in 
order  that  they  may  be  able  later  on  to  take  their 
places  in  the  world  of  workers.  A  soldier  also  wants 
to  keep  up  to  date  as  regards  the  news.  The  Na- 


H  § 

OO  is 

O  " 

K  -9 

CO  g 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS       337 

tional  Institute  for  the  Blind,  in  London,  publishes 
a  weekly  newspaper.  The  Braille  Weekly  Edition  of 
the  Daily  Mail,  which  consists  of  sixteen  pages  of  the 
week's  news  and  is  sold  for  a  penny. 

It  is  surprising  to  note  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
soldiers  learn  to  read  and  write  in  Braille.  This  is  no 
doubt  due  to  the  fact  that  each  pupil  is  given  an 
individual  teacher.  Many  of  the  men  used  to  an 
active,  open-air  life,  their  hands  calloused  by  work, 
have  to  acquire  the  sensitiveness  of  touch  necessary 
to  enable  them  to  pass  their  fingers  over  the  em- 
bossed dots  of  a  Braille  page  and  make  them  do  the 
work  of  their  eyes.  Yet  many  of  them  become  com- 
paratively proficient  readers  in  six  months*  time. 
After  that  it  is  only  a  matter  of  continued  practice 
for  them  to  become  more  and  more  expert.  Many  of 
the  men,  who  in  the  ordinary  course  of  life  would 
read  but  little  good  literature,  are  now,  because  of 
the  handicap  of  their  blindness,  beginning  to  read 
some  of  the  best  authors.  As  a  compensation  for  their 
loss  of  sight  they  are  being  introduced  to  the  joys  of 
good  reading  and  are  being  reeducated  along  new 
lines. 

Two  institutions  in  particular  have  become  quite 
famous  for  this  work  of  reeducation,  —  St.  Dunstan's 
in  London  and  Le  Phare  de  France  in  Paris. 

THE  WORK  IN  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 

Under  the  stimulus  of  Sir  Arthur  Pearson's  genius 
for  organization,  St.  Dunstan's  hostel  for  blinded 


338  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

soldiers  and  sailors  has  become  a  model  of  practical 
work  for  the  blind.  The  success  of  the  undertaking, 
all  the  more  remarkable  since  Sir  Arthur  is  himself 
blind,  has  been  due  in  part  to  the  excellently  main- 
tained system  of  communication  between  the  medical 
and  military  authorities.  Even  before  the  bUnded 
soldier  leaves  the  military  hospital  some  little  task 
is  given  him  to  occupy  his  mind  and  encourage  him 
in  his  efforts  to  acquire  a  new  form  of  usefulness. 
At  St.  Dunstan's  everything  that  ingenuity  can  sug- 
gest and  generosity  provide  is  done  to  lift  him  from 
mental  despondency  over  his  loss.  It  is  the  aim  of 
the  institution  to  develop  the  imagination  and  stim- 
ulate individual  initiative;  to  impress  upon  the  man 
that  but  for  the  loss  of  sight  he  is  normal,  and  to 
arouse  in  him  pride  of  achievement,  to  the  end  that 
he  may  learn  to  look  upon  his  blindness  as  an  oppor- 
tunity rather  than  as  a  calamity.  The  hostel  has  been 
called  the  "Happiest  House  in  London."  "What  the 
eye  does  not  see,  the  heart  does  not  grieve  about,"  is 
its  motto. 

Education  begins  the  moment  the  man  enters, 
and  so  successful  are  the  methods  employed  that  in 
less  than  a  week  he  can  conduct  visitors  around  the 
grounds  and  workshops,  no  small  feat  when  one 
realizes  that  they  cover  more  than  fifteen  acres. 

The  point  of  view  on  which  the  work  is  based  is 
that  "blindness  is  only  a  handicap,  and  one  that  it 
is  quite  possible  to  get  the  better  of."  The  starting- 
point  of  the  treatment  is  the  physiological  fact  that 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS        339 

our  other  senses  —  hearing,  smell,  and  touch  —  but 
little  called  upon  when  sight  exists,  have  become,  in 
consequence,  almost  atrophied  by  disuse.  Systematic 
treatment  awakens  and  develops  these  senses  to  an 
almost  incredible  degree. 

In  the  classrooms  the  man  is  taught  Braille  reading 
and  typewriting,  and  as  soon  as  he  has  passed  the 
writing  test,  he  is  given  a  typewriter  for  his  own  use. 
He  stays  until  he  is  proficient  in  some  line  and  he  is 
then  assisted  in  various  ways  to  make  his  entry  into 
the  new  life.  On  leaving  he  is  well  supplied  with 
Braille  books.  The  National  Library  for  the  Blind 
lends  books  free  to  all  British  soldiers  blinded  in 
the  war,  the  cost  of  transportation  being  met  by  the 
National  Institute  for  the  Blind. 

Although  the  study  of  Braille  is  only  one  of  the 
many  tasks  to  which  the  men  apply  themselves  simul- 
taneously, most  of  them  master  its  intricacies  in  from 
five  to  six  months,  and  are  able,  by  the  time  they 
leave  St.  Dunstan's,  to  read  quickly  enough  to  thor- 
oughly enjoy  a  book.  When  distributing  prizes  a 
short  time  ago  to  the  men  who  had  passed  the  test 
of  the  National  Institute  for  the  Blind  in  writing 
Braille,  Sir  Arthur  Pearson  told  them  that  already 
three  hundred  and  thirty-four  St.  Dunstan's  men 
had  passed  this  difficult  test.  "When  you  realize," 
he  said,  "that  out  of  the  total  blind  population  of 
the  Kingdom  only  three  hundred  outside  of  St.  Dun- 
stan's have  passed  it,  you  can  see  what  reason  you 
have  to  be  proud  of  yourselves.'* 


340  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

The  trades  and  occupations  taught  —  selected  after 
careful  consideration  as  likely  to  provide  the  most 
practical  openings  for  sightless  men  desiring  profit- 
able work  —  are  massage,  shorthand  writing,  tele- 
phone operating,  poultry  farming,  joinery,  mat- 
making,  boot  repairing,  and  basketry.  Instruction  is 
also  given  in  netting,  but  this  is  regarded  rather  as 
a  paying  hobby  than  as  an  occupation.  As  a  rule,  train- 
ing in  the  simpler  occupations  is  completed  in  from  six 
to  eight  months.  Shorthand  takes  longer.  The  course 
in  massage  requires  from  a  year  to  a  year  and  a  half; 
besides  gaining  the  necessary  manipulative  dexterity, 
the  men  have  to  acquire  a  considerable  knowledge 
of  anatomy,  physiology,  and  pathology,  and  the 
examinations  which  they  must  pass  are  very  severe. 
A  fine  collection  of  technical  books  in  Braille  type, 
many  of  them  compiled  by  an  ex-pupil  of  the  school, 
who,  having  lost  his  sight  in  the  middle  of  his  medi- 
cal career,  turned  his  attention  to  the  practice  of 
massage,  is  presented  to  every  student. 

While  massage  is  not  a  new  occupation  for  the 
blind,  heretofore  the  bhnd  masseur  had  in  every  case 
been  a  person  of  superior  intellectual  attainments, 
and  for  this  reason  expert  authorities  were  at  first 
incHned  to  consider  it  impracticable  to  attempt  to 
train  blinded  soldiers  for  this  work.  It  is  therefore  all 
the  more  remarkable  that  in  a  year  or  two  a  large 
number  of  men,  blinded  in  the  war,  should  have  so 
equipped  themselves  as  to  be  able  to  help  in  the  cure 
of  other  wounded  men  lying  in  military  hospitals. 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS       341 

"The  transition  from  a  state  of  hopelessness  and 
helplessness,  with  the  haunting  prospect  of  a  useless 
life,  to  this  exercise  of  highly  trained  skill  in  work  of 
the  utmost  utility,  is  amazing  to  contemplate,"  says 
Sir  Arthur  Pearson  in  his  recently  published  book, 
"Victory  over  Blindness." 

Play  is  considered  as  important  at  St.  Dunstan's 
as  work.  Rowing,  swimming,  boxing,  and  wrestling 
are  popular.  Dancing  is  much  enjoyed,  and  games  of 
all  kinds  are  played  in  the  evenings.  The  daily  papers 
are  read  aloud  every  morning.  A  debating  club  holds 
very  interesting  meetings. 

All  these  activities  help  to  carry  out  Sir  Arthur's 
idea  in  establishing  St.  Dunstan's  —  to  create  "a 
Httle  world  where  the  things  which  blind  men  cannot 
do  are  forgotten,  and  where  every  one  is  concerned 
with  what  blind  men  can  do."  The  men  are  advised 
not  to  emphasize  the  difference  between  themselves 
and  others  by  twisting  phrases  unnecessarily,  but  to 
speak  naturally  of  "seeing"  a  person  or  "reading" 
an  item  of  news  in  the  paper.  A  blinded  soldier,  who, 
on  his  arrival  from  the  hospital,  had  been  taken  over 
the  building  and  through  the  classrooms,  the  work- 
shops, and  the  grounds,  was  asked  when  he  returned 
if  he  had  been  happily  impressed.  His  answer  was, 
"Yes,  sir,  only  I  cannot  believe  that  all  these  men 
are  blind!" 

As  each  man  goes  away  he  is  equipped  with  the 
necessary  apparatus  for  the  particular  trade  he  has 
been  taught,  and  is  assisted  in  installing  it  in  his 


342  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

home.  Even  then  his  connection  with  St.  Dunstan's 
does  not  cease,  for  by  means  of  its  After-Care  De- 
partment the  institution  keeps  in  touch  with  its 
former  students,  and  plans  to  do  so  as  long  as  any 
of  them  are  alive  and  need  its  aid. 

The  case  of  a  young  scientific  chemist,  blinded  by 
a  laboratory  explosion  while  engaged  in  conducting 
experiments  connected  with  the  perfection  of  a  new 
form  of  high  explosive  for  military  purposes,  furnishes 
a  striking  example  of  the  way  in  which  it  is  possible 
for  a  blind  man  to  hold  his  own  in  pursuits  which  to 
many  people  seem  utterly  beyond  his  powers.  Forti- 
fied by  the  promise  of  a  position  with  the  great  chem- 
ical firm  for  which  he  had  previously  worked,  he 
attacked  the  problems  that  confronted  him  with  the 
utmost  vigor  and  persistence,  learned  with  unusual 
rapidity,  and  with  the  help  of  some  of  the  leading 
teachers  and  experts  in  London  kept  himself  well 
abreast  of  scientific  progress.  On  his  return  to  work 
he  was  entrusted  with  the  supervision  of  all  the 
patents;  he  has  also  reviewed  and  indexed  the  accu- 
mulation of  patent  literature  in  the  library,  making 
synopses  of  the  interesting  cases,  and  has  been  called 
upon  with  increasing  frequency  for  reports  on  re- 
search problems  affecting  the  various  departments. 

In  summing  up  the  reasons  for  the  speed  with  which 
the  blinded  soldiers  at  St.  Dunstan's  are  able  to  learn, 
Sir  Arthur  Pearson  lays  special  stress  upon  the  fact 
that  their  teachers  are  also  blind.  Thus  there  is  a 
bond  between  teacher  and  pupil.  In  attacking  their 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS      343 

unaccustomed  tasks  the  men  realize  that  they  are 
not  being  asked  to  do  something  impossible,  by  some 
one  who  does  not  understand;  they  feel,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  what  has  already  been  done  by  a  man 
similarly  handicapped  they  too  can  learn  to  do.  "  Since 
I  have  seen  St.  Dunstan's,"  exclaimed  one  visitor, 
"'blind  leaders  of  the  blind'  will  never  again  mean 
anything  to  me  but  a  proverb  of  human  helpfulness! " 

In  France,  work  similar  to  that  at  St.  Dunstan's 
is  being  done  by  Le  Phare  de  France,  Paris,  and 
Le  Phare  de  Bordeaux.  Le  Phare  de  France,  literally 
"the  lighthouse  of  France,"  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Department  of  the  Interior  and  the  Ministry 
of  War,  claims  the  distinction  of  being  the  only  col- 
lege for  the  reeducation  of  the  blinded  soldier.  It 
was  opened  in  March,  1916,  by  the  President  of  the 
French  Republic  and  the  American  Ambassador.  It 
publishes  a  French  Braille  magazine  La  Lumiere, 
partially  edited  by  blinded  soldiers  and  distributed 
wherever  a  blinded  soldier  can  be  found.  It  has  also 
issued  no  less  than  ten  thousand  volumes  covering  a 
wide  range,  from  music  to  novels.  The  blinded  sol- 
dier can  borrow  almost  anything  from  "The  Last  of 
the  Romanoffs"  to  Kipling's  latest  volume,  or  from 
a  grammar  to  a  manual  of  anatomy  to  be  used  in  his 
study  of  massage  as  a  part  of  his  reeducation. 

Miss  Winifred  Holt,  a  daughter  of  Henry  Holt,  the 
New  York  publisher,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
"lighthouse."  Her  schemes  for  arousing  the  interest 
of  the  blind  are  very  practical.  A  visitor  noticed  a 


344  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

small  bronze  elephant  near  the  edge  of  her  desk.  "He 
is  one  of  my  best  friends,"  she  said.  "When  I  have  a 
blind  soldier  brought  in  to  me  for  the  first  time  he 
sits  hopelessly  in  that  chair,  and  it  is  my  business  to 
get  hold  of  him.  Presently,  after  the  manner  of  the 
blind,  his  hands  vaguely  grope  as  he  talks  and  soon 
fall  on  the  elephant,  and  I  say,  *  What  are  you  touch- 
ing?' In  a  moment  he  has  run  his  hand  along  the 
animal  and  says,  *An  elephant.'  Then  lean  show  him 
that  he  need  not  despair  since  he  can  see  with  his 
hands." 

Although  the  aim  of  Le  Phare  de  France  is  the 
higher  education  of  the  blinded  soldier,  its  doors  are 
open  to  all  classes  from  the  oflficer  of  high  rank  to  the 
humble  poilu,  the  only  passport  required  being  blind- 
ness and  potential  intelligence.  Of  the  subjects 
taught,  typewriting  and  stenography  are  the  most 
popular  as  well  as  the  most  necessary,  for  it  is  through 
these  two  branches  primarily  that  the  blind  soldier 
can  be  reunited  with  the  seeing  world.  The  special 
commercial  courses  are  also  popular,  while  the  arts 
and  crafts,  such  as  weaving,  the  operation  of  knitting 
machines,  printing  presses,  modeling  and  the  making 
of  pottery,  likewise  come  in  for  their  share  of  atten- 
tion. A  wounded  patient  from  Verdun,  his  right  arm 
as  well  as  his  sight  gone,  on  being  introduced  to  an 
American  checker-board  adapted  for  the  blind  and 
finding  that  he  could  still  beat  his  kindly  visitor  with 
all  her  faculties  intact,  was  so  pleased  and  encouraged 
that  he  took  a  new  interest  in  life  and  from  checkers 


]',\..','-u    ,..'..•    i.-JI-r  •»•«*■■•  f/"^'*'."'  ?■  "J.^ 


lu  -- jw.  -.•• 


..^ 


©  ^adei  V  Herbert,  New  York 

LIGHT  OUT  OF  DARKNESS 

Upper:  Making  an  embossed  map  of  the  seat  of  the  war 

Lomr:  Braille  sheet  with  diagram  showing  the  range  of  projectiles 


Kailtl  3r  Herbert,  JVeic  York 

PRINTING  THE  WAR  NEWS  FOR  BLIND  SOLDIERS 
Some  of  the  women  operatives  were  blind 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS       345 

went  on  to  learn  Braille  and  other  simple  things  until 
he  was  able  to  leave  the  military  hospital  and  take 
up  in  earnest  the  study  of  some  line  of  useful  work. 

A  strong  Zouave  came  back  carried  like  a  child, 
with  no  eyes,  no  legs,  and  only  one  arm.  However,  he 
laughed  aloud  when  he  found  that  he  could  not  only 
leam  to  read  but  that  one  arm  could  do  things  which 
were  useful  and  of  commercial  value. 

The  Valentin  Haiiy  Association  has  organized  a 
commercial  course  and  gives  instruction  in  reading 
and  writing  Braille,  in  writing  with  a  pen  and  with  a 
"guide."  It  prints  in  Braille  easily  read  books  of  an 
attractive  kind,  like  the  works  of  FranQois  Coppee, 
Alphonse  Daudet,  and  Alexandre  Dumas.  Its  library 
is  open  to  blinded  soldiers,  and  twice  a  day  readings 
are  given  for  their  benefit  —  the  morning  session 
being  devoted  to  the  newspapers.  The  Association 
aims  at  a  sort  of  family  life.  The  idea  underlying  all 
its  work  is  that  a  blind  person  can  and  must  recon- 
struct his  life. 

"A  Beacon  for  the  Blind,"  the  life  of  Henry 
Fawcett,  the  blind  Postmaster-General  of  England, 
by  Miss  Winifred  Holt,  with  a  preface  by  Lord  Bryce, 
has  been  put  into  Braille  by  the  National  Insti- 
tute for  the  Blind,  and  is  now  being  read  by  the 
British  soldiers  blinded  in  battle.  The  National  In- 
stitute has  also  put  a  French  translation  of  this 
work  by  the  Marquis  de  Vogiie  into  French  Braille 
—  a  gift  from  the  British  to  their  blinded  allies. 

Miss  Alice  Getty,  an  American,  is  doing  in  Paris  a 


346  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

novel  work  for  the  blinded  soldiers.  It  originated  in 
the  fall  of  1915  when  she  was  asked  by  two  blinded 
French  officers  if  she  would  not  give  them  some 
lessons  in  English  so  that  they  could  converse  with 
their  English-speaking  blinded  conu'ades.  Miss  Getty 
tried  to  find  an  English  grammar  written  in  Braille, 
but  learned  that  the  only  ones  in  Paris  were  at  the 
Valentin  Haiiy  Association  and  could  not  be  loaned. 
Thereupon  she  decided  to  make  up  her  own  Braille 
grammar.  While  doing  this,  she  became  impressed 
with  the  urgent  need  for  literature  for  the  blind.  She 
purchased  a  machine  for  printing  in  Braille  and  trans- 
formed a  vacant  apartment  into  a  printing  shop 
called  La  RouCy  "The  Wheel"  (the  Eastern  symbol 
of  wisdom). 

When  a  request  for  a  French-Spanish  grammar 
reached  her,  and  no  such  book  could  be  found.  Miss 
Getty  made  up  one  with  the  aid  of  a  person  who 
knew  the  Spanish  Braille  alphabet.  Next  came  a  re- 
quest for  instruction  books  in  massage  —  a  calling 
in  which  blinded  soldiers  have  become  particulariy 
adept.  Miss  Getty  then  began  to  issue  books  which 
would  help  to  keep  blind  men  in  touch  with  modem 
thought  and  the  literature  of  to-day.  Copies  of  each 
work  were  sent  to  six  Braille  libraries  in  the  prov- 
inces. Before  long  ninety-seven  blinded  soldiers 
were  drawing  individually  on  the  collection  which 
Miss  Getty  had  established. 

When  the  printing  office  and  library  developed  to 
a  point  where  they  were  too  large  for  Miss  Getty  to 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS       347 

handle  personally,  they  were  taken  over  by  the 
American-British-French-Belgian  Permanent  Blind 
Relief  War  Fmid.  This  Fund  suppKes  books  to  the 
various  institutions  in  the  different  countries  as  well 
as  to  any  individual  blinded  soldier  with  whom  the 
officials  may  get  in  touch. 

The  English  grammar  with  which  Miss  Getty 
began  is  now  in  its  third  edition,  as  is  also  its  com- 
panion volume,  "English  Words  Grouped  According 
to  Sound."  Two  editions  of  the  Spanish  grammar 
by  Sauer-Serrano  have  been  issued,  followed  by  a 
better  one  by  Hernandez.  The  record  for  the  last 
three  months  of  1917  was  875  volumes  printed  and 
bound  in  cardboard.  A  recent  report  states  that  a 
total  of  3765  volumes  have  been  turned  out.  Two 
or  three  books  are  sent  each  month  to  every  person 
on  the  "Wheel's**  mailing  list.  Some  of  these  works 
are  being  illustrated  by  a  special  process. 

Miss  Getty's  plant  and  library,  supported  largely 
by  donations  from  the  United  States,  are  now  located 
at  the  headquarters  of  the  Fund,  75  Avenue  des 
Champs  Elysees,  Paris. 

THE  WORK  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  methods  employed  by  the  United  States 
government  for  the  rehabilitation  of  the  blind  in- 
corporate the  best  features  of  the  English  and  French 
systems.  The  men  are  cared  for  in  France  before, 
embarkation;  training  is  provided  for  them  on  board 
ship  en  route  to  this  country;  and  after  their  return 


348  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

they  are  given  a  complete  course  of  instruction  in  a 
hospital  school.  When  they  are  ready  to  reenter 
civil  life,  suitable  positions  are  found  for  them. 

For  this  work  Mrs.  T.  Harrison  Garrett  has  given 
her  residence,  with  its  ninety-acre  estate,  at  Roland 
Park,  near  Baltimore.  The  house  has  been  fitted  up 
as  a  complete  hospital  school  for  the  blind,  known 
as  "Evergreen  Hospital."  Classrooms,  auditoriums, 
shops,  swimming-pools,  and  gymnasiums  have  been 
built  on  the  grounds.  Here  the  blinded  soldier  is 
trained  to  live  as  a  blind  man,  to  have  faith  in  him- 
self, to  reaHze  the  mental  and  physical  value  of 
steady  employment,  to  find  light  through  work.  The 
course  of  study  includes  reading  and  writing  Braille; 
the  use  of  the  typewriter;  transcribing  from  the 
dictaphone,  telephone  switch-board  operating,  and 
various  branches  of  gymnastics  and  athletics.  The 
essentials  of  certain  occupations,  such  as  weaving, 
woodworking,  cement  work,  and  netting,  are  also 
taught.  A  period  of  from  three  months  to  a  year  is 
required  for  the  entire  course. 

Some  of  the  men  who  will  get  $100  a  month  for 
total  disability  and  $57.50  from  their  Government 
insurance,  feel  at  first  that  they  do  not  have  to 
work,  but  they  soon  become  convinced  that  em- 
ployment is  necessary  for  their  happiness.  "Do  not 
let  any  one  do  anything  for  you  that  you  can  do 
for  yourself,'*  is  the  instructor's  advice  to  the  newly 
blinded. 

Every  effort  is  made  to  induce  the  men  to  learn 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS       349 

Braille,  as  a  means  of  contact  with  the  outside  world 
which  they  cannot  afford  to  neglect.  Sometimes  re- 
sistance is  encoimtered,  but  nearly  every  man  can 
be  persuaded  in  one  way  or  another.  One  man  was 
led  to  take  up  the  study  through  his  interest  in  a 
Braille  slate.  To  others  the  incentive  came  through 
their  desire  to  participate  in  the  card  parties  which 
are  arranged  as  an  opportunity  for  social  entertain- 
ment, and  to  which  young  ladies  are  invited;  in 
order  to  use  the  cards,  which  have  raised  figures,  it 
was  necessary  to  master  the  rudiments  of  Braille. 
**I  do  not  want  to  leam  to  read,"  said  an  old  man, 
"but  I  would  like  to  leam  to  play  solitaire."  Through 
learning  solitaire  he  became  a  most  enthusiastic 
reader.  Recently  forty-four  men  were  taking  Braille 
at  one  time. 

Some  of  the  men  had  been  farmers  before  going 
into  the  Army,  and  had  not  gone  beyond  the  seventh 
or  eighth  grade  of  the  public  schools.  At  the  hospital 
they  take  up  English  and  arithmetic  and  get  a  com- 
mon school  education.  In  Braille  they  begin  with 
primers  and  contractions,  and  then  go  on  to  short 
stories,  which  are  being  copied  by  volunteers  all  over 
the  country. 

An  English  soldier,  a  veteran  of  the  Boer  War,  who 
had  become  naturalized  and  had  enlisted  in  the 
American  Army,  lost  his  sight  in  the  recent  war. 
While  at  the  United  States  Soldiers'  Home  he  took 
correspondence  courses  in  English  and  law.  In  order 
that  he  might  master  Blackstone's  Commentaries 


350  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

the  text  was  read  into  a  dictaphone  and  then  copied 
off  in  Braille. 

Another  blinded  soldier  is  studying  anatomy  from 
the  cadaver  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  Medi- 
cal School,  using  as  a  textbook  Gray's  Anatomy, 
transcribed  in  Braille. 

An  American  soldier,  who  lost  his  eyesight  and 
both  his  hands  in  France,  recently  received  from  a 
young  British  soldier  who  had  suffered  the  same  fate 
a  remarkable  and  interesting  letter,  written  at  the 
instigation  of  Sir  Arthur  Pearson,  in  the  hope  that 
the  story  of  the  writer's  experiences  and  successes 
might  bring  hope  and  cheer  to  another  in  the  same 
situation. 

The  letter  was  written  by  the  soldier  himself  on  a 
specially  constructed  typewriter,  operated  by  means 
of  a  small  hammer  attached  to  his  artificial  hand.  It 
did  not  contain  a  single  mistake  or  erasure.  In  it  the 
writer  states  that  thanks  to  the  course  in  elocution 
which  Sir  Arthur  arranged  for  him  he  is  able  to  earn 
his  own  livelihood,  which  he  does  by  speaking  on  the 
work  of  St.  Dunstan's  and  the  National  Institute  for 
the  Blind;  in  addition  he  organizes  and  controls  the 
lantern  slide  department  which  is  the  advertising 
medium  of  these  two  institutions,  and  finds  the  work 
most  interesting. 

With  this  letter,  typed  "with  his  own  hands"  to 
show  the  practicability  of  the  feat,  was  enclosed  a 
longer  communication  which  he  had  dictated,  relat- 
ing in  more  detail  his  experiences  since  the  days 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS      351 

when  he  had  considered  himself  "the  most  unfor- 
tmiate  person  on  earth,"  and  describing  the  steps  by 
which  he  had  come  to  realize  the  possibilities  still 
open  to  him. 

The  number  of  things  which  he  has  learned  to  do 
with  his  artificial  hands  surprises  everybody,  he  says 
—  himself  most  of  all.  Besides  using  a  typewriter  he 
can  handle  a  fork  and  spoon,  carry  a  walking-stick, 
and  take  his  cigarette  case  from  his  pocket  and  help 
himself  to  a  cigarette.  By  way  of  physical  exercise 
he  finds  Swedish  drill,  swimming,  roller. skating,  and 
dancing  practicable.  By  having  the  reins  passed 
through  his  artificial  hands  and  strapped  to  his 
wrists  he  is  even  able  to  ride. 

On  one  occasion  he  addressed  a  meeting  without 
any  of  the  audience  knowing  that  he  had  lost  his 
hands.  "Since  I  have  been  like  this  I  have  traveled 
quite  a  lot  up  and  down  the  country,  and  have  had 
many  amusing  experiences,"  he  says;  "and  I  take 
considerable  satisfaction  in  the  fact  that  I  am  able 
to  deceive  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  people  I  meet." 

The  soldier  to  whom  these  letters  were  written  has 
also  received  from  Helen  Keller  a  letter  which  has 
been  an  inspiration  not  only  to  him,  but  to  many 
others: 

"Some  day  you  will  ask  yourself  why  men  fight 
and  kill  and  maim  other  men  with  whom  they  have 
no  quarrel.  To  satisfy  your  curiosity  you  will  read. 
May  I  suggest  that  you  read  such  books  as  *Men  in 
War,'  by  Latzko;  'Under  Fire,*  by  Henri  Barbusse, 


352  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

and  Bertrand  Russell's  *New  Roads  to  Freedom.* 
Those  books  will  make  things  clear  to  you.  Through 
the  medium  of  those  men's  great  souls  you  will  hear 
the  cries  of  the  multitude  whom  no  one  can  number 
—  the  victims  of  calamity,  of  oppression,  of  fierce 
injustice  in  every  land.  If  you  have  the  kind  of  mind 
that  urges  you  to  seek  knowledge,  you  will  keep  on 
reading  and  investigating  until  you  discover  what  is 
the  warp  and  woof  in  the  tissue  of  things  that  cause 
men  to  struggle  savagely  one  against  another  on  the 
fields  of  war,  industry,  and  commerce.  I  think  you 
will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  mankind  is  menaced 
by  a  remorseless  enemy  —  an  enemy  which  is  de- 
stroying the  happiness,  the  gentleness,  the  goodness 
in  the  world  —  an  enemy  which,  under  the  mask  of 
civilization,  darkens  men's  minds,  hardens  their 
hearts,  and  brings  to  naught  their  highest  hopes, 
their  noblest  aspirations.  There  can  be  no  peace  or 
liberty  or  happiness  upon  earth  while  this  enemy 
rules  in  the  high  places." 

So  interested  has  Eugene  Brieux,  the  French  play- 
wright, become  in  the  reeducation  of  the  blinded 
soldiers,  that  he  has  addressed  to  them  a  series  of  four 
letters  written  in  a  style  whose  charm  springs  from 
its  simplicity,  sincerity,  and  freedom  from  sentimen- 
tality. They  have  been  copied  in  Braille  so  that 
every  blind  soldier  can  read  them  for  himself.  Though 
intended  primarily  for  agricultural  laborers  and  me- 
chanics, they  contain  information,  advice,  and  encour- 
agement for  all  men  who  are  trying  to  adjust  them- 


BOOKS  FOR  BLINDED  SOLDIERS       353 

selves  to  "a  new  life  wherein  their  eyes  are  in  their 
finger  tips."  The  first  is  a  note  of  cheer  to  take  up  life 
anew,  with  serenity  and  courage,  as  well  as  happiness, 
for  "when  one  knows  beforehand  that  in  playing  a 
game  one  is  bound  to  win,  there  is  no  need  to  hesitate, 
but  play  the  hand."  In  the  other  letters  he  urges  the 
learning  of  a  handicraft,  discusses  the  choice  of  a 
craft,  and  strongly  advises  the  learning  of  Braille,  not 
merely  for  the  pastime  and  instruction,  but  also  for 
the  sake  of  correspondence  and  the  keeping  of  ac- 
counts. Brieux  firmly  believes  that  there  are 

"  New  lamps  for  old  —  behind  those  vacant  eyeballs 
There  lies  a  brain  that  has  a  thousand  eyes 
That  can  be  taught  to  see  the  hidden  world 
That  in  an  unseen  world  most  truly  lies." 


CHAPTER  XX 

READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

In  response  to  the  insistent  call  for  vocational  litera- 
ture which,  as  soon  as  peace  was  in  sight,  replaced  the 
previous  demand  for  military  and  technical  works, 
the  American  Library  Association  printed  several 
million  copies  of  carefully  selected  lists  of  books  on 
various  trades.  These  were  sent  to  camp  libraries, 
branch  reading-rooms,  welfare  centers,  and  public 
libraries,  and  were  even  made  available  through  such 
novel  distributing  agencies  as  armories,  banks,  clubs, 
chambers  of  commerce,  employment  bureaus,  fac- 
tories, hotels,  post-oflBces,  restaurants,  stores,  and 
waiting-rooms. 

The  men  were  relaxed  and  unsettled,  and  welcomed 
these  guides  to  reading  which  might  be  of  use  to  them 
in  their  future  work.  Many  looked  forward  to  making 
a  change  in  their  civil  occupations.  Boys  who  had 
never  farmed,  for  example,  showed  a  great  interest 
in  agriculture,  feeling  that  they  could  not  go  back  to 
the  confinement  of  indoor  life.  In  one  hospital  ward 
books  on  soils,  on  berry  culture,  on  poultry-raising, 
and  on  breeds  of  farm  animals  were  all  asked  for  on 
the  same  day. 

An  Italian  at  Fort  Leavenworth  who  found  Bailey's 
"Principles  of  Agriculture"  on  the  shelf,  inquired 
whether  they  were  going  to  have  any  simpler  works 


K 
O 

< 

< 
< 
<! 

< 
S 
C5 

i 

;?; 

•-• 

\^ 
o 
a? 

H 
H 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         355 

on  the  subject.  "After  de  war  I  taka  da  land,"  he 
explained,  "so  I  study  farming  now."  A  young  lieu- 
tenant and  a  private  in  the  same  ward,  who  both 
wanted  a  book  on  farm  tractors,  willingly  shared  the 
volume. 

Boys  from  the  farm  had  had  enough  of  seeing  things 
destroyed  and  were,  as  a  rule,  desirous  of  getting  back 
to  a  Hfe  where  they  could  watch  things  grow.  They 
too  were  eager  for  information.  "I've  farmed  all  my 
life,  but  I  'd  like  to  learn  anything  new  there  is  about 
it  in  the  books,"  said  one  farmer-soldier.  A  young 
marine  at  Chelsea  appropriated  every  volume  on  soils 
and  on  poultry-raising  that  he  could  get  hold  of. 
"The  other  fellow  can  have  the  Zane  Greys  if  I  can 
have  these,"  he  said. 

A  man  in  the  Camp  Dodge  Hospital  who  could  n't 
"settle  down  to  a  story"  was  much  pleased  when  the 
librarian  suggested  that  he  might  be  reading  up  on 
his  trade.  He  left  the  library  with  a  book  on  electric- 
ity under  his  arm  and  a  broad  smile  on  his  face. 
Another  man,  who  had  been  a  stenographer  before 
enlisting,  seized  the  opportunity  afforded  by  his  stay 
in  camp  after  the  Armistice  to  study  the  literature 
of  modem  business  methods. 

The  librarian  at  a  debarkation  hospital  reported 
that  Hiscox's  "  Gas  Engines"  had  been  thumbed  by 
every  man  in  one  of  the  wards,  and  that  there  had 
almost  been  a  free  fight  because  one  man  hid  the 
book  under  his  mattress  while  he  went  out  one 
afternoon. 


356  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

BOOKS  FOR  THE  A.E.F. 

For  the  American  Expeditionary  Forces  in  France 
the  National  War  Work  Council  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 
planned  a  novel  kind  of  "university,"  with  class- 
rooms in  the  five  hundred  huts  scattered  along  the 
French  front.  In  addition  to  the  teaching  of  ele- 
mentary subjects,  provision  was  made  for  advanced 
students  whose  college  studies  had  been  interrupted 
by  the  war.  General  Pershing  offered  the  services 
of  all  soldiers  who  were  competent  instructors  and 
could  be  spared  from  strictly  military  duty.  This 
educational  work  was  afterwards  taken  over  by  the 
Army.  The  A.L.A.  cooperated  in  every  possible  way 
and  was  made  responsible  for  the  selection  and  dis- 
tribution of  the  special  book  collections  needed  for 
supplementary  reading. 

In  each  of  the  divisions  of  the  A.E.F.  a  man  with 
library  experience  was  appointed  from  the  Army  to 
act  as  division  librarian.  It  was  his  duty  to  forward 
to  the  Paris  Headquarters  of  the  A.L.A.  information 
as  to  the  number  and  size  of  the  classes  being  formed 
and  the  subjects  to  be  studied,  together  with  such 
other  details  as  might  be  necessary  for  assembling  the 
prop)er  equipment  of  educational  books  (exclusive  of 
textbooks,  which  were  supplied  by  the  Army).  It 
was  also  his  province  to  see  that  when  the  books 
reached  the  division,  they  were  promptly  and  prop- 
erly distributed,  that  competent  men  were  detailed 
to  attend  to  their  administration,  and  that  they  were 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         357 

used  to  the  best  possible  advantage.  He  carried  on 
his  work  in  close  cooperation  with  the  division  school 
officer,  who  had  general  oversight  of  the  educational 
work  in  the  division. 

For  each  army  the  A.L.A.  appointed  from  its  own 
personnel  an  Army  librarian,  who  supervised  the 
library  work  and  gave  to  the  division  librarians 
such  assistance  and  advice  as  they  needed. 

Uniform  reference  libraries,  of  about  400  volumes 
each,  were  supplied  to  some  500  schools  of  instruction 
established  by  the  Army  Education  Commission 
and  scattered  throughout  the  American  Expedition- 
ary Forces,  and  an  approximately  equal  number  of 
smaller  collections  of  specially  selected  books  were 
furnished  for  posts  where  only  elementary  or  spe- 
cialized work  was  given.  These  books  covered  a  range 
of  about  1000  titles.  For  this  purpose  more  than 
300,000  volumes  were  purchased  in  the  United  States 
and  shipped  to  France  on  special  tonnage  granted  by 
the  War  Department.  The  Army  Post-Office  trans- 
ported them,  in  120-pound  cases,  by  mail  cars,  thus 
greatly  facilitating  deKvery  to  points  where  educa- 
tional work  was  being  carried  on.  Supplementary 
books  for  which  need  arose  from  time  to  time  were  de- 
livered either  by  a  weekly  courier  service,  or,  where 
that  was  impossible,  by  mail. 

The  number  and  variety  of  the  courses  offered  in 
the  Army  schools  was  such  that  a  soldier  could  study 
almost  anything  he  wished,  from  typewriting  to  the 
theory  of  music.  Among  the  subjects  taught  at  Le 


358  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Mans,  to  take  a  single  instance,  were  law,  short- 
hand, salesmanship  and  advertising,  penmanship, 
Spanish,  French,  mathematics,  journalism,  public 
speaking,  art,  and  architecture.  An  opportunity  was 
thus  afforded  to  every  man  in  the  service  to  in- 
crease his  fitness  for  his  former  position  in  civil  life, 
or  to  train  himself  to  fill  a  better  one  when  he  got 
back  to  the  States. 

The  A.L.A.  also  provided  a  library  for  the  A.E.F. 
University  opened  in  March,  1919,  at  Beaune,  near 
Dijon.  The  enrollment  in  this  institution  was  limited 
to  those  who  were  at  least  prepared  for  college  work; 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  about  half  of  the  10,000  men  in 
attendance  at  the  fourteen  colleges  already  held 
academic  degrees.  That  the  educational  director  of 
the  enterprise,  Dr.  John  Erskine,  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, was  able  to  cite  several  hundred  instances  in 
which  students  elected  to  remain  at  Beaune,  though 
given  the  option  of  returning  to  the  United  States 
with  their  units,  shows  that  the  work  done  there  was 
well  worth  while. 

The  two  great  library  problems  at  Beaune  were 
books  and  room.  A  collection  of  30,000  volumes  was 
installed,  and  two  supplementary  buildings  were 
added  to  the  main  library,  bringing  the  seating  ca- 
pacity up  to  1500  readers.  This  library  performed  two 
types  of  service.  While  its  main  function  was  that  of 
the  ordinary  college  or  university  Hbrary,  the  call  for 
general  reading  could  not  be  ignored  and  it  also  did 
the  work  of  a  public  library.  Fiction  proved  to  be  the 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         359 

class  of  literature  least  in  demand,  and  this  despite 
the  fact  that  the  copies  on  the  shelves  were  abso- 
lutely new;  its  percentage  of  circulation  in  comparison 
with  class  books  was  about  one  to  six.  The  explanation 
for  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  library 
was  well  stocked  with  fresh  copies  of  the  kind  of  books 
that  the  men  particularly  wanted  —  available  on 
open  shelves.  "The  appeal  of  the  shelves  and  new 
books  is  very  strong  to  men  who  have  been  roughing 
it  for  one  or  two  years,"  said  the  librarian.  "These 
new  books  include  practically  every  subject  that 
men  might  be  interested  in  —  all  the  businesses, 
professions,  vocations,  the  sports,  history,  politics, 
travel,  and  literature.  Books  on  France  are  consist- 
ently popular,  but  drama,  poetry,  essays  (with  a 
surprisingly  large  call  for  appreciations  of  art  and 
literature)  are  well  in  the  foreground." 

BRITISH  RECONSTRUCTION  WORK 

Even  while  fighting  was  in  progress  the  British 
Government  was  planning  for  the  period  of  recon- 
struction after  the  war.  One  of  its  numerous  schemes 
for  furthering  the  resumption  of  ordinary  pursuits 
was  the  Active  Service  Army  School  of  the  War 
OflSce,  which  gave  the  British  soldier,  whether  at 
home  or  in  the  occupied  territories,  a  chance  to  study 
for  his  own  pleasure  and  profit  while  still  in  the  serv- 
ice. Instruction  was  not  Hmited  to  purely  vocational 
studies,  although  these  were  included  in  great  vari- 
ety, but  covered  almost  all  the  subjects  taught  in 


360  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

a  modern  university,  including  languages,  literature, 
history,  and  the  sciences. 

To  supply  books  for  an  undertaking  of  such  mag- 
nitude, at  a  time  when  the  printing  and  publishing 
trade  was  suffering  severely  from  a  shortage  of  labor, 
proved  a  difficult  task.  Many  standard  publications 
were  temporarily  out  of  print,  and  substitutes  had  to 
be  found  in  order  not  to  keep  the  classes  waiting.  At 
one  time  the  need  was  so  acute  that  the  War  Office 
circularized  the  secondary  schools  and  induced  them 
to  contribute  about  15,000  volumes.  The  Stationer's 
Office  helped  out  at  times  by  printing  and  binding 
urgently  needed  books.  As  a  general  thing  the  stu- 
dents were  given  a  chance  to  buy  the  books;  those 
who  were  unable  to  do  so  were  provided  for  in  some 
other  way,  usually  by  a  loan  during  the  period  of 
study.  Over  a  million  volumes  were  sent  out  during 
the  fall  and  winter  of  1918-19. 

Educational  officers  were  sent  to  hospitals  as  well 
as  to  points  where  troops  were  concentrated.  While 
men  who  are  ill  cannot  do  much  hard  studying,  the 
stimulus  they  receive  from  seeing  the  books  and  lis- 
tening to  talks  on  a  variety  of  subjects  is  often  all 
that  is  needed  to  rouse  their  flagging  interest  in  Hfe. 
In  hospitals  where  the  patients  were  mostly  privates 
special  emphasis  was  laid  on  the  teaching  of  voca- 
tional subjects,  and  the  convalescents  showed  much 
enthusiasm  over  motor  engineering,  mechanical 
drawing,  bookkeeping,  accounting,  shorthand  and 
typewriting,  business   methods   and  salesmanship. 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         361 

agriculture,  textiles,  bee-keeping,  and  poultry-raising. 
Classes  were  also  conducted  in  history,  languages, 
literature,  political  economy,  general  science,  and 
music.  Most  of  the  instruction  was  given  by  officers 
stationed  in  the  hospitals  and  by  teachers  in  near-by 
schools. 

A  visitor  to  one  hospital,  where  the  cases  were 
severe,  detaining  the  men  for  several  months,  found 
classes  ranging  in  size  from  fifteen  to  seventy-five 
members.  The  energetic  young  Scotch  captain  in 
charge  of  the  educational  work  had  borrowed  a  bee- 
hive, around  which  he  expected  the  men  to  swarm  as 
eagerly  as  the  bees,  and  was  awaiting  impatiently  the 
arrival  of  two  automobiles  for  the  use  of  his  motor 
classes;  he  was  certain  that  the  advantages  of  poultry- 
raising  would  appeal  to  disabled  men,  but  had  been 
unable  to  obtain  different  breeds  of  chickens  or  an 
incubator.  "So  contagious  was  his  enthusiasm,"  re- 
ported the  visitor,  "that  had  I  been  the  supposed 
American  millionaire  we  are  all  credited  with  being, 
I  should  have  gone  straight  off  and  bought  him  all 
the  hens  in  sight  and  incubators  in  all  stages  of  de- 
veloping chicks." 

Another  interesting  and  serviceable  phase  of  the 
educational  work  undertaken  by  the  Government  was 
that  of  the  Appointments  Department  of  the  Minis- 
try of  Labor.  Its  aim  was  to  furnish  to  every  officer 
and  private  in  the  hospital  the  special  books  he  needed 
in  order  to  keep  abreast  of  his  profession  or  trade. 
While  the  War  Office  provided  for  the  men  more  or 


S62  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

less  en  masse,  this  department  dealt  only  with  indi- 
vidual cases  and  individual  needs.  Blanks  were  sent 
to  all  the  hospitals,  to  be  filled  out  by  the  patients, 
who  indicated  what  subjects  interested  them,  or  more 
often,  especially  in  the  case  of  imiversity  men,  the 
particular  books  they  wanted  to  read.  When  the  re- 
quest was  not  definite,  the  Department  consulted  an 
expert  in  the  field  of  the  student's  interest  in  order 
that  it  might  be  filled  in  the  most  satisfactory  man- 
ner. Books  were  either  bought  or  obtained  from  some 
society  or  private  individual,  and,  unless  the  subject 
was  one  of  especial  difficulty,  were  sent  out  within 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  receipt  of  the  request.  The 
service,  including  postage,  was  free. 

In  all  these  activities  the  Central  Library  for 
Students,  in  London,  played  an  important  part.  This 
library  was  started  to  meet  the  needs  of  students 
taking  university  extension  courses  but  unable  to  buy 
the  expensive  books  which  were  required.  In  1915 
a  grant  was  obtained  from  the  Carnegie  Foundation, 
and  the  collection  which  had  been  gathered  together 
at  Toynbee  Hall  by  the  Workers'  Educational  Union 
became  the  nucleus  of  a  larger  library,  which  almost 
at  once  began  to  be  of  use  to  the  Government.  At 
the  request  of  the  Ministry  of  Pensions,  technical 
books  were  loaned  to  wounded  soldiers  trying  to  fit 
themselves  for  their  return  to  civiHan  life.  The 
resources  of  the  library  also  proved  of  the  great- 
est possible  value  to  the  soldier  students  of  the 
Active   Service  Army  School,  and  to  the  work  of 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         363 

the  Appointments  Department  of  the  Ministry  of 
Labor. 

AMERICANIZATION     . 

"The  war  has  brought  clearly  to  view  the  fact  that 
national  imity  is  endangered,  not  only  by  illiteracy, 
which  fact  has  long  been  recognized,  but  by  diversity 
of  language,  with  its  resulting  lack  of  complete  under- 
standing and  cooperation,"  said  Dr.  Nicholas  Murray 
Butler  recently.  "No  American  community  should 
be  permitted  to  substitute  any  other  language  for 
English  as  the  basis  or  instrument  of  common  school 
education."  The  program  formulated  by  the  National 
Committee  of  One  Hundred,  appointed  by  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education  to  devise  plans  for  strength- 
ening the  public  system  of  education,  laid  special 
stress  upon  the  common  use  of  the  English  language 
as  a  means  of  developing  a  common  understanding 
and  appreciation  of  American  standards,  ideals,  and 
responsibilities  of  citizenship.  "Our  un-Americanized 
aliens,"  said  Mr.  H.  H.  Wheaton,  chairman  of  the 
committee,  "are  the  greatest  weakness  in  our  chain, 
and  this  weakness  has  been  analyzed  in  Europe  and 
used  against  us." 

There  were  in  the  cantonments  thousands  of 
foreign-speaking  men  who  had  to  learn  to  understand, 
read,  and  give  orders  in  English.  For  these  men 
the  Y.M.C.A.  and  other  organizations  established 
schools,  while  the  camp  libraries  contributed  books. 
To  each  camp  were  sent  a  number  of  copies  of  a  book 


364  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

on  elementary  English  intended  for  adults.  For  use 
as  textbooks  in  the  classes  the  Massachusetts  Free 
Public  Library  Commission  sent  to  Camp  Devens 
copies  of  Field's  "English  for  New  Americans'*  and 
Plass's  "Civics  for  Americans  in  the  Making."  The 
English  lessons  were  largely  conversational  and  were 
planned  as  far  as  possible  to  center  around  the  daily 
duties  of  the  men.  Faustine  and  Wagner's  "New 
Reader  for  Evening  Schools,  adapted  for  Foreigners," 
was  found  very  useful  by  some  librarians.  A  Pole  who 
could  not  read  or  speak  a  word  of  English  when  he 
arrived  at  Fort  Sam  Houston  Base  Hospital,;was  able 
to  read  the  entire  book  when  he  left,  and  had  become 
so  attached  to  it  that  the  librarian  made  him  a  present 
of  the  copy  which  he  had  used  so  constantly. 

"Why  do  you  not  come  to  the  library  any  more  for 
Italian  books?"  was  asked  of  a  swarthy  shoemaker 
attached  to  a  military  hospital.  "I  like  very  much  to 
read  Italian  books,  but  now  I  am  learning  to  read 
English,"  he  answered  with  pride.  An  oflScer  looking 
for  an  interpreter  in  the  same  hospital  asked  a  boy 
who  had  just  received  his  citizenship  papers,  "Are 
you  an  Italian?"  "No,  Sir,"  came  the  quick  response, 
"I  am  an  American,  but  I  speak  Italian." 

Before  the  foreign-bom  soldier  can  read  or  speak 
English  he  must  be  supplied  with  books  in  his  own 
language.  Therefore  the  camp  hbraries  contained 
books  in  Yiddish,  Polish,  Lithuanian,  French,  Italian, 
German,  Scandinavian,  Russian,  Chinese,  Lettish, 
and  many  other  tongues.  One  request  forwarded  to 


< 
> 

;z; 

« 

O 

< 


H 

I?: 

(-> 

as 
< 

O 

H 
<! 

« 

s 

H 

O 

X 
O 

o 

s 

;?; 
o 


Z       C8 

O     fo 

X  ^ 

«    8 

<  -3 

m  ^ 

O  5 

K  c 

^  a 


02  § 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         365 

New  York  called  for  the  "Thousand  and  One  Nights" 
in  the  original  Arabic.  With  the  help  of  Columbia 
University  the  book  was  found  and  sent  to  the  camp. 

From  a  camp  in  the  Southwest  came  the  report  that 
the  draft  had  brought  in  thousands  of  Mexicans,  resi- 
dents of  southern  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  Texas. 
They  could  not  read  English  and  wanted  Spanish 
books  very  badly. 

One  day  a  Greek  boy  showed  a  book  in  his  lan- 
guage to  the  librarian  in  his  camp  and  asked  her  if 
she  had  ever  read  it.  She  had  to  confess  that  modern 
Greek  was  not  one  of  her  accomplishments.  "But 
this  is  a  translation  from  the  English,"  he  explained. 
"It  is  called  *  Sherlock  Holmes/" 

He  did  not  know  that  the  book  represented  one  of 
the  methods  adopted  by  the  A.L.A.  for  luring  the 
foreign-bom  soldier  into  the  study  of  English.  A  man 
who  found  on  the  English  shelves  a  book  which  he 
had  just  been  reading  in  his  own  tongue  would  often 
venture  to  try  it;  knowing  the  story  made  it  easier  for 
him  to  understand  the  English  text.  There  are  plenty 
of  books,  such  as  "Huckleberry  Finn"  and  "Robin- 
son Crusoe,"  which  have  been  translated  into  every 
known  language,  and  the  A.L.A.  sowed  these  freely 
in  the  libraries  of  camps  where  there  were  many  non- 
English-speaking  soldiers.  Included  in  a  consignment 
of  Yiddish  books  received  at  Camp  Lee,  for  instance, 
were  translations  of  "Captains  Courageous"  and  the 
works  of  O.  Henry. 

An  applicant  at  the  Camp  Greene  library,  who  had 


366  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

been  given  a  copy  of  De  Amicis's  "  Cuore,"  requested 
an  Italian  second  reader.  He  said  that  he  had  been  to 
school  in  Italy,  but  had  never  been  to  an  American 
school.  He  rejected  Miss  O'Brien's  "English  for 
Foreigners,"  but  was  much  pleased  with  Baldwin's 
"Second  Reader."  Books  in  Italian  and  Polish  were 
requisitioned  for  the  use  of  patients  in  the  hospitals 
at  Camp  Hancock  who  could  scarcely  speak  English 
and  could  not  read  it  at  all. 

At  Camp  MacArthur  the  books  in  Spanish,  French, 
Modem  Greek,  Italian,  Russian,  Roumanian, Yiddish, 
and  Polish  were  in  constant  use.  One  bright  young 
Pole  told  the  librarian  that  his  wife  and  two  children 
were  in  that  part  of  Poland  invaded  by  Germany,  and 
that  he  had  not  heard  from  them  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war.  He  had  enlisted  in  the  hope  of  helping 
toward  a  free  Poland.  His  father  had  told  him,  he 
said,  that  some  day  Poland  must  be  free,  and  that  he 
must  do  his  part.  A  request  for  a  small  collection  of 
books  in  Arabic  was  accompanied  by  the  statement 
that  there  were  over  a  hundred  men  in  the  camp  who 
could  use  these  books  and  who  had  previously  been 
accustomed  to  borrow  them  from  the  Milwaukee 
Public  Library.  One  of  the  men  suggested  the  desira- 
bility of  a  Bible  and  some  of  the  classics  in  Arabic. 
A  list  of  Hebrew  and  Yiddish  books,  compiled  by 
some  of  the  soldiers  at  Camp  Gordon  and  sent  in  by 
the  librarian  as  a  recommendation  for  purchase,  rep- 
resented some  of  the  best  and  most  popular  authors 
in  this  class  of  literature. 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         367 

"No  read  Englis,"  said  a  patient  voice,  brokenly, 
in  response  to  the  offer  of  an  illustrated  weekly. 
"Read  Italiano?"  ventured  the  hospital  librarian. 
The  tragic  look  disappeared  and  the  man  smiled  when 
he  was  given  the  New  York  daily  II  Progresso  Italiano 
and  one  of  the  "romanzas"  which  every  Italian  holds 
dear.  The  librarian  asked  him  whether  he  had  fought 
in  Italy.  "In  France,"  he  replied,  "in  the  American 
Army." 

Two  lads  hobbled  up  to  the  library  truck  at  Camp 
Dix.  The  first  hunted  for  a  "good  love  story,"  while 
the  second,  after  much  hesitation,  picked  out  a  thin 
volume  which  he  showed  to  his  companion  a  bit 
sheepishly.  "That's  right,  buddy,  you'll  like  that," 
said  the  first.  It  was  Roberts's  "English  for  Coming 
Americans:  Beginners'  Course."  "He's  Russian," 
explained  number  one.  So  the  librarian  called  atten- 
tion to  some  Russian  stories  on  the  other  side  of  the 
truck,  and  with  one  of  these  imder  one  arm  and  the 
"Beginners'  Course"  under  the  other  the  boy  limped 
back  to  his  cot. 

"It  is  remarkable  to  note  the  type  of  book  which 
interests  our  foreign-bom  men,"  wrote  the  morale 
officer  at  Camp  Devens  to  an  official  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Free  Public  Library  Commission.  "They 
seem  to  be  desirous  of  obtaining  the  works  of  the  best 
authors,  and  appreciate  the  opportunity  of  having 
them  available  in  the  camp  library,  through  the  efforts 
of  the  various  auxiliary  organizations.  I  wish  that  you 
might  be  able  to  bring  it  to  the  attention  of  the  Free 


368  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

Public  Library  Commission  of  Massachusetts  that 
the  possibility  of  reading  good  literature  in  their  na- 
tive tongue,  which  has  been  given  to  those  who  read 
Arabic,  Armenian,  Finnish,  French,  Greek,  Italian, 
Lithuanian,  Polish,  Portuguese,  Russian,  Swedish, 
and  Yiddish,  has  been  of  great  assistance  to  the  mili- 
tary authorities  in  maintaining  a  good  spirit  among 
the  men,  and  in  developing  them  mentally  while  at 
Camp  Devens." 

At  the  Camp  Merritt  Hospital  books  in  Greek, 
ancient  or  modem,  and  in  PoUsh  were  asked  for.  "We 
had  neither,"  reported  the  librarian,  "but  the  Greek, 
who  could  read  some  English,  took  Creasy's  'Fifteen 
Decisive  Battles'  and  later  a  history  of  Greece,  which 
he  liked  so  well  that  a  colored  man  in  the  same  ward 
wanted  it  on  his  recommendation.  The  Pole  was  of- 
fered and  accepted  a  translation  of  Sienkiewicz  as  a 
stop-gap,  and  when  he  returned  it,  we  had  received 
some  Polish  newspapers,  at  which  his  face  lighted  up 
with  pleasure." 

In  the  surgical  ward  of  the  Base  Hospital  at  Camp 
Dix  was  a  laconic  Swede  from  the  ammunition  train. 
Pointing  to  his  disabled  leg,  he  stated  his  case  briefly : 
"I  was  trying  to  break  a  horse;  he  break  me." 
While  laid  up  he  wanted  books,  not  on  horse-breaking, 
but  on  electrical  engineering. 

"Have  yez  anny  books  by  George  Birmingham?" 
the  hospital  librarian  at  Camp  Dix  was  asked. 
Promising  a  book  by  that  author  for  the  next  morn- 
ing, she  stopped  to  jot  down  the  request  and  copy 


o 

O 

« 

12; 
o 
o 


o 
a 


1       '-' 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         369 

the  name  Mulrooney  from  the  card  at  the  foot  of  the 
bed.  "You  must  be  an  Irishman,"  she  ventured  as  a 
conversation  opener.  "Shure,  with  such  a  name  as 
that  on  me  door-plate,  yez  ask  me  am  I  an  Irishman ! " 
It  developed  that  Mulrooney  came  from  County 
Mayo,  the  corner  of  Ireland  to  which  Canon  Hannay, 
as  George  Birmingham,  has  given  new  fame  and 
interest. 

"  Have  yez  got  any  medical  books  about  horses?" 
called  out  a  newly  arrived  case  across  the  aisle.  The 
librarian  made  another  memorandum  in  her  note- 
book, and  the  inquirer  spelled  out  his  name  as  James 
McConnell.  "What's  that  Mac  doin'  over  there?" 
asked  County  Mayo.  "Shure,  they  ought  to  have  all 
us  Macs  side  by  side,  and  we  Irish  lovin'  each  other  so 
tenderly.  "  "He's  the  imported  article,  though,"  said 
McConnell.  "I'm  naught  but  domestic."  "Shure," 
retorted  Mulrooney,  "'tis  little  difference  there  is 
betwixt  sardines  in  a  box  like  this." 

Mulrooney  displayed  an  interest  in  Irish  poetry, 
and  the  librarian  brought  him  a  volume  of  Yeats  and 
a  newspaper.  He  scanned  the  predictions  as  to  the 
Peace  Conference  and  remarked  belligerently,  "I 
won't  be  satisfied  at  givin'  up  me  crutch  and  gettin' 
out  o*  me  uniform  until  I  know  Ireland  will  be  ripri- 
sinted  at  the  Peace  Table.  Shure,  she  has  as  much 
right  to  it  as  the  Jews  to  Palestine." 

A  short,  swarthy  man  stepped  up  to  the  library 
desk  at  Camp  MacArthm*  and  asked,  *'You  haf 
Greek? ""  Certainly,"  said  the  woman  assistant. 


370  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

She  showed  him  where  the  Greek  books  were,  and  he 
chose  "Don  Quixote."  His  smiling  face  and  profuse 
thanks  were  very  gratifying. 

One  of  the  most  faithful  patrons  of  the  Camp 
Beauregard  library  was  a  Russian,  formerly  a  second 
lieutenant  in  the  Russian  Army.  With  the  help  of  the 
library  he  took  a  correspondence  course  in  high-school 
subjects. 

"It  was  after  five  o'clock  of  the  afternoon  before 
Thanksgiving,"  wrote  Miss  Marilla  W.  Freeman, 
hospital  librarian  at  Camp  Dix.  "The  library  'book 
wagon,'  as  the  lads  call  our  hospital  litter  truck  of 
books  and  magazines  for  the  wards,  had  been  put 
away  for  the  night.  It  was  dark  outside,  and  my  li- 
brary orderly  had  gone  to  mess.  My  ward  visiting 
for  the  day  was  supposed  to  be  over,  but  the  rumor 
ran  through  the  corridors  that  our  first  detachment 
of  overseas  wounded  had  at  last  arrived  and  was  being 
distributed  through  the  surgical  wards  —  'lots  of  'em 
in  ward  23.'  One  of  the  grand  and  glorious  compensa- 
tions of  a  busy  hospital  librarian  is  that  she  is  welcome 
in  any  ward  at  all  hours,  so  I  could  n't  resist  slipping 
over  and  into  23.  There  they  were,  sure  enough,  many 
of  them  hobbling  about  in  their  overseas  caps,  trying 
to  orient  themselves.  All  kinds  of  crutches,  canes,  and 
slings  limped  up  and  gathered  around,  interested  in 
my  Library  War  Service  uniform,  new  to  them,  though 
all  assured  me  they  had  had  A.L.A.  books  in  France. 
I  told  them  how  glad  we  were  to  see  them  back,  and 
how  happy  that  they  had  come  to  our   particular 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         371 

hospital;  showed  them  the  books  and  magazines  in 
the  little  ward  collection,  and  promised  to  come  back 
in  the  morning  with  a  truckful  of  new  books  and 
papers.  My  hands  were  empty  but  for  a  couple  of 
left-over  Greek  newspapers  sticking  out  of  my  hos- 
pital bag.  I  said  I  was  sorry  I  did  n't  have  something 
for  them  then  and  there. 

"A  handsome  young  blond  giant  who  looked  like 
a  native  American,  one  arm  strapped  to  his  side,  was 
scrutinizing  closely  the  papers  in  my  bag.  *What  is 
that  you  have  there?'  he  asked,  most  politely.  *0h, 
nothing  you  would  care  for,'  said  I;  'only  two  old 
Greek  newspapers.'  *Well,  Greek  is  my  language,* 
said  he,  *and  it's  a  long  time  since  I've  seen  a  word 
of  it.  May  I  have  them?'  And  as  he  sank  into  the 
nearest  chair  and  lost  himself  in  the  precious  papers 
he  murmured  rapturously,  'First  Greek  words  I've 
seen  in  six  months.'" 

This  little  incident.  Miss  Freeman  went  on  to  say, 
brought  home  to  her,  as  nothing  else  had,  a  realiza- 
tion of  how  many  nationalities  have  gone  into  the 
making  of  America,  and  have  poured  out  their  blood, 
as  stanch  Americans,  upon  the  fields  of  France. 

IN  PRESENT-DAY  RUSSIA 

Ernest  Poole,  in  "The  Village,"  reports  a  series 
of  interviews  with  representative  characters  of  rural 
Russia  as  he  saw  it  in  1917.  A  lad  of  twenty  talked 
enthusiastically  of  what  would  be  done  when  they 
had  a  People's  House:  "We  cannot  read  the  Eng- 


372  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

lish,  but  if  there  are  pictures  enough  in  the  books  they 
will  be  used  by  the  peasant  until  every  page  is  as 
dirty  as  the  inside  of  a  stable!'*  He  laughed.  "We  will 
put  these  books  in  the  reading-room,  on  the  second 
floor  of  our  People's  House.  We'll  get  a  pile  of  Russian 
books,  too.  But  if  they  do  not  send  us  books  about 
America,  the  Germans  will  send  us  wagon-loads  of 
books  and  films  and  pictures  to  show  how  good  their 
country  is." 

The  village  school-teacher  expressed  similar  ideas: 
"Here,  as  they  learn  to  dig  in  the  ground,  so  too  they 
will  learn  to  dig  in  books,  for  the  big  treasures  of  the 
past.  A  teacher  must  be  always  there,  whose  job  it 
shall  be  to  give  out  books  to  the  children  and  the 
parents  alike.  Many  village  libraries  have  been 
started  in  Russia  of  late  years,  but  most  of  them 
simply  give  out  books  without  studying  the  read- 
ers. And  this  is  stupid  waste.  The  teacher  should 
find  what  each  reader  wants,  what  kind  of  books 
appeal  to  him  most;  then  plan  a  course  to  suit  his 
needs,  and  so  lead  him  slowly  along  the  path  —  not 
a  straight  but  a  very  crooked  path,  that  goes  winding 
up  a  hillside.  For  this  is  education. 

"I  should  like  to  have  lectures  there  at  night,  and 
classes  for  the  parents;  and  cinema  pictures  every 
week,  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  foreign  lands.  Our 
peasants  should  learn  of  America.  This  is  the  most 
important  point.  Every  school  should  teach  English, 
every  library  should  have  a  good  stock  of  English 
and  American  books,  to  offset  the  ones  that  the  Ger- 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         373 

mans  keep  handing  out  as  gifts  to  us.  I  tell  you  their 
agents  have  gone  about  for  years  to  village  libraries 
and  schools.  Those  fellows  are  zealots;  they  work 
day  and  night.  Have  you  no  such  zealots  in  your 
land?  Why  don't  you  send  them  over  here?  If  you 
believe  in  liberty  as  the  Germans  believe  in  their 
devil's  Kultur,  you  will  come  over  by  thousands  and 
prove  your  belief  by  the  things  you  do.  You  have  a 
great  man,  Lincoln.  You  should  make  his  story 
known  in  every  Russian  schoolhouse." 

John  Reed,  in  his  account  of  the  Bolshevist  Revo- 
lution of  October,  1917,  entitled  "Ten  Days  that 
Shook  the  World,"  tells  of  the  newly  awakened  thirst 
for  reading  and  education:  "All  Russia  was  learning 
to  read,  and  reading  —  p>olitics,  economics,  history  — 
because  the  people  wanted  to  know.  In  every  city, 
in  most  towns,  along  the  front,  each  political  faction 
had  its  newspaper  —  sometimes  several.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pamphlets  were  distributed  by  thou- 
sands of  organizations,  and  poured  into  the  armies, 
the  villages,  the  factories,  the  streets.  The  thirst  for 
education,  so  long  thwarted,  burst  with  the  Revolu- 
tion into  a  frenzy  of  expression.  From  Smolny  Insti- 
tute alone,  the  first  six  months,  went  out  every  day 
tons,  car-loads,  train-loads  of  literature,  saturating 
the  land.  Russia  absorbed  reading  matter  like  hot 
sand  drinks  water,  insatiable.  And  it  was  not  fables, 
falsified  history,  diluted  religion,  and  the  cheap  fiction 
that  corrupts — but  social  and  economic  theories,  phil- 
osophy, the  works  of  Tolstoy,  Gogol,  and  Gorky. . . . 


374  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

"We  came  down  to  the  front  of  the  Twelfth  Army, 
back  of  Riga,  where  gamit  and  bootless  men  sickened 
in  the  mud  of  desperate  trenches;  and  when  they  saw 
us  they  started  up,  with  their  pinched  faces  and  flesh 
showing  blue  through  their  torn  clothing,  demanding 
eagerly,  *Did  you  bring  anything  to  read?'" 

Dr.  Peter  Alexander  Speek,  himself  a  Russian  and 
a  library  worker,  has  recently  conducted  for  the 
Carnegie  Corporation  a  special  investigation  6f  rural 
immigrant  communities  in  the  United  States,  with 
a  view  to  the  extension  of  library  activities.  His 
report  shows  that  the  same  desires  and  needs  which 
Ernest  Poole  and  John  Reed  found  in  Russia  are  in 
evidence  among  the  foreign-bom  population  of  our 
own  country. 

Rapid  as  has  been  the  development  of  public  li- 
braries in  the  United  States,  in  Dr.  Speck's  opinion 
it  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  requirements  of  the 
times,  especially  as  regards  the  rural  communities. 
Out  of  fifty-four  of  the  colonies  which  he  visited  in 
the  course  of  a  year,  forty  had  no  library  privileges 
at  their  disposal;  the  remaining  fourteen  prided  them- 
selves on  having  either  school  or  parish  libraries.  As 
a  rule,  however,  libraries  of  this  kind  are  far  from 
satisfactory,  the  school  libraries  containing  mainly 
children's  books,  while  the  parish  libraries  consist 
mostly  of  ecclesiastical  literature  and  books  concern- 
ing the  mother  country,  the  latter,  of  course,  in  a 
foreign  tongue.  That  they  fail  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
situation  is  shown  by  the  comments  of  an  old  Polish 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         375 

settler:  there  was  nothing  for  the  older  people,  he 
said,  in  the  books  which  the  children  sometimes 
brought  home  from  school;  neither  was  the  church 
library  of  any  use  —  for  who  cared  to  read  about 
a  Sigismund  or  a  Friedrich  der  Grosse?  What  he  and 
his  fellow  immigrants  wanted  was  to  read  American 
books  about  America. 

LIBBABY  EXTENSION 

The  experience  of  the  Extension  Division  of  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  proves  how  great  is  the  de- 
mand for  literature  on  the  part  of  the  people  living 
in  the  country  districts,  and  how  rapidly  it  is  increas- 
ing. This  division  has  over  10,000  packages,^  and  each 
year  the  number  of  requests  for  them  has  more  than 
doubled.  During  1908  and  1909,  524  packages  on 
116  subjects  were  sent  to  136  places;  during  1915 
and  1916,  5948  packages,  dealing  with  2404  sub- 
jects, went  to  483  localities. 

As  a  means  of  supplying  this  demand  more  ade- 
quately. Dr.  Speek  recommends  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  traveling  libraries  and  supplementing  them  by 
the  package  library  system  already  in  use  to  some 
extent  in  several  States.  In  the  selection  of  books  the 
conditions  and  requirements  of  the  various  commu- 
nities must  be  taken  into  consideration.  Publications 
concerning  farming,  particulariy  those  of  the  Federal 

*  Each  package  contains  a  collection  of  literature  —  books,  newspa- 
pers, magazine  articles,  statistical  tables,  etc.  —  on  a  special  subject. 
The  packages  are  sent.  Under  certain  conditions,  to  any  one  requesting 
them. 


376  BOOKS  IN  THE  WAR 

and  State  Departments  of  Agriculture,  hold  first  place. 
Next  come  books  necessary  for  the  learning  of  Eng- 
lish— dictionaries,  grammars,  and  textbooks  on  com- 
position. Recreation  literature,  including  books  on 
sports,  games,  music,  and  nature  books,  is  in  de- 
mand. Then  come  publications  dealing  with  Ameri- 
can history,  geography,  government,  economics, 
and  social  life.  Some  fiction  should  be  included, 
though  as  a  general  thing  the  immigrant  cares  Httle 
for  this,  preferring  to  read  books  which  will  be  of 
practical  use  to  him,  either  in  his  present  vocation  or 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  plans  for  the  future. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  the  libraries  should  be 
large,  but  they  should  be  of  a  quahty  which  will  tend 
to  elevate  the  standards  of  life  and  broaden  the  in- 
tellectual horizon  of  their  readers.  The  reading  of 
American  literature  by  the  immigrant  may  thus  be 
made  an  instrument  of  inestimable  value  in  his 
Americanization. 

In  localities  where  there  is  a  community  house, 
this,  being  neutral  ground,  is  the  best  location  for  a 
library  station.  As  to  the  question  of  finance,  in 
Dr.  Speck's  judgment  the  communities  themselves 
should,  as  far  as  possible,  share  the  expense  with 
the  Federal  and  State  Grovernments. 

"Who  is  going  to  lead  such  an  extension  of  the 
libraries  into  the  backwoods  communities?"  he  asks, 
in  conclusion.  "The  national  and  state- wide  library 
associations.  As  they  have  succeeded  in  extending  the 
American  library  to  the  battle-fields  of  Europe,  so 


READING  FOR  THE  FUTURE         377 

without  doubt  they  will  succeed  in  the  extension  of 
the  library  to  the  firing-line  in  our  own  country  —  to 
the  liae  where  the  future  America  is  in  the  making." 
But  even  the  traveling  library  fails  to  solve  entirely 
the  problem  of  supplying  books  to  the  back  country 
districts.  As  Mr.  A.L.  Spencer,  Chairman  of  the  Rural 
Libraries  Committee  of  the  New  York  Library  Asso- 
ciation, points  out  in  an  article  in  a  recent  number  of 
the  Library  Journal,  the  final  necessary  step  is  the 
practical  use  of  the  rural  delivery.  With  carriers  pass- 
ing nearly  every  farm  door  in  the  United  States  in 
their  daily  rounds,  it  would  seem  that  machinery  to 
bring  the  village  library  into  direct  touch  with  the 
outlying  farm  home  is  already  in  operation.  The 
reason  why  it  is  unused  is  to  be  found  in  the  local 
parcel  post  rate,  which,  while  it  is  liberal  for  com- 
mercial and  other  heavy  packages,  is  impracticable 
for  purposes  of  book  circulation.  The  fact  that  the 
cost  of  borrowing  and  returning  a  book  amounts  to 
ten  or  twelve  cents  has  barred  out  completely  this 
class  of  local  parcels.  What  is  needed  is  a  flat  rate,  so 
that  the  library  which  sends  out  fifty  pounds  of  books, 
though  to  forty  different  boxes,  shall  not  have  to  pay 
two  dollars  and  a  quarter,  while  the  grocer  may  send 
fifty  pounds  of  lard  for  thirty  cents.  If  this  privilege 
can  be  obtained,  it  will  go  far  toward  providing  ade- 
quate service  for  that  part  of  our  American  common- 
wealth most  in  need  of  library  facilities. 

THE  END 


INDEX 


Abelard  and  H61oIse,  109 

Adcock,  A.  St.  John,  on  Y.M.C.A. 
libraries,  224-227 

Agriculture,  354-355 

Aix-le-Bains,  94 

All-Story  Weekly,  104 

American  Bible  Society,  323-326 

American  Civil  War,  1-4,  146 

American  Expeditionary  Forces, 
39,  62,  356-359 

American  Library  Association,  5- 
21,  82,  169,  266,  354;  Book  li^t, 
60;  coSperation  with  other  organ- 
izations, 13,  192;  in  France,  86- 
107;  in  Siberia,  73-80;  War  Serv- 
ice Committee,  5-7 

American  Red  Cross,  14, 18,  6ft-69, 
88-89,  93.  95,  120,  146,  147,  151, 
154,  167,  168,  171,  316,  329 

Americanization  of  foreign-bom, 
363-371 

Amicis,  De,  "Cuore,"  866 

Annunzio,  Gabriele  d',  315 

Anstruther,  Hon.  Mrs.  Eva,  177, 
197 

Answers,  180 

Arabic,  365,  366 

Argonne,  The,  104 

Ariosto,  5 

Arthur,  T.  S.,  2 

Association  des  Bibliothecalres 
Frangais,  96 

Atlantic,  U.S.S. 

Atlases,  33 

Austen,  Jane,  69, 189,  248 

Austin,  J.  L.,  experiences  as  a 
prisoner  of  war,  274 

Australians,  197-198 

Baedeker's  Guides,  32-33 
Bailey,  L.  H.,  "Principles  of  Agri- 
culture," 354 
Bairnsfather,  Bruce,  78,  202 
Baldwin's  "Second  Reader,"  366 
Balfour,  Sir  Graham.  222 


Balzac,  Honor€,  "Gallery  of  Anti- 
quities," 82 
Barbusse,  Henry,  351 
Barclay's  "Geography,"  5 
Barclay,  Mrs.  Florence,  29,  181 
Barracks,  11-12 
Barres,  Maurice,  296 
Barrie,  J.  M.,  226 
Bateman,  Charles  T.,  225 
Battersea,    Lady,  loan  of    Surrey 

House  for  War  Library,  175 
Beach,  Rex,  29,  141,  148 
Beauchamp,  Lady,  179 
Beaune,  A.E.F.  University,  358- 

359 
Belffique,  La,  281 
Belloc,  H.,  "General  Sketch  of  the 

European  War,"  300 
Bennett,  Arnold,  226,  302 
Benson,  Arthur  C,  303 
Bergson,  H.  L.,  28,  99,  241 
Berlin,     16;     (Ruhleben)     prison 

camp,  229,  233-236,  241-242 
Berliner  Illustrierte  Zeitung,  242 
Berliner  Tageblatt,  read  by  prisoners 

of  war,  242,  276 
Berliner  Zeitung  am  Mittag,  242 
Bible,  The,  223,  321-334 
Birmingham,  George,  368-369 
Birrell,  Augustine,  179 
Blackmore,   "Loma  Doone,"   70, 

287 
Blackstone's  "  Commentaries,"  349 
Blachwood's  Magazine,  182,  258 
Blinded  soldiers,  books  for,  335-353 
Bond,  "Pick,  Shovel,  and  Pluck," 

43 
Book  selection,  10-11 
Books  and  morals,  80-85 
Books  for  blinded  soldiers,  335-353 
Booksellers,  234,  302 
Boothby,  Guy,  181 
Bordeaux,  96,  172 
Borrow,  George,  "Bible  in  Spain," 

70 


380 


INDEX 


Boswell's  "Life  of  Johnson,"  24, 28, 

189,  225 
Bower,  B.  M.,  141 
Boyer  and  Speranskii,   "Russian 

Reader,"  78 
Braille  books  and  magazines  for 

blinded  soldiers,  335-353 
Brainerd,  Miss  Eveline  W.,  70-73 
Bramshott  Hospital,  252 
Brassey,  Lady,  on  libraries  in  mili- 
tary hospitals,  244-245 
Brest,  96,  119,  131 
Brett,  W.  H.,  22 
Bridges,    Robert,    Poet-Laureate, 

193-196 
Brieux,    Eng^e,    81;    letters    to 

blinded  soldiers,  352-353 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 

177,  323 
British  Camps  Library,  197-215 
British  military  hospital  Ubraries, 

244-263 
British  National  Institute  for  the 

Blind,  339 
British  Navy,  175,  177 
British  prisoners  of  war,  214,  269- 

282 
British    Prisoners    of    War    Book 

Scheme  (educational),  229-243, 

265 
British  reconstruction  work,  359- 

363 
British  Red  Cross  and  Order  of  St. 

John, 178, 185, 189, 192, 193,  205 
British  War  Library,  175-196,  251- 

252 
British  Y.M.C.A.  libraries,  21&-228 
Brooke,  Rupert,  318,  319 
Brown.  Charles  H.,  128-129 
Browning,  Robert,  227,  257,  269, 

300-301,  313 
Bryce,  Lord,  110 
Buchan,   John,    "History    of   the 

War."  300 
Bulwer-Lytton,    "Last    Days    of 

Pompeii,"  69,  257,  260 
Bunyan,  John,  158,  220 
Burdick,  "Real  Property,"  104 
Burleson  magazines,  34,  36 
Bury,  Bishop,  on  Ruhleben  camp, 

241 
Butler,  Bishop,  194 


Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  363 
Butler,     Samuel,    "Way     of    All 

Flesh,"  302 
Bystander,  301 

Caesar,  Julius,  186 

Caine,  HaU,  70,  226 

Callahan,    "  George    Washington, 

the  Man  and  the  Mason,"  26,  43 
Camp,  Walter,  47 
Camps  and  Cantonments: 

Beauregard,  13,  35,  370 

Bowie,  35 

Chickamauga  Park,  45 

Cody,  156 

Custer,  44-45,  50,  330 

Devens,  17,  23,  25,  31,  38,  42,  55, 
306,  367-368 

Dix,  27,  36,  37,  115,  160,  368, 
370-371 

Dodge,  13,  355 

Fimston,  34 

Gordon,  24,  29,  53,  365 

Greene,  42,  45,  365 

Hancock,  47,  366 

Humphreys,  25,  42 

Jackson,  17,  51,  115 

Lee,  36,  43,  50,  365 

MacArthur,  14,  44,  49,  165,  366, 
369 

Merritt,  368 

Pike,  48 

Sevier,  18,  116 

Sherman,  32 

Upton,  31,  148,  151 

Wadsworth,  155,  317 

Zachary  Taylor,  24,  29, 146, 152- 
153,  316 
Camps  Library,  British,  197-215 
Canadian  Khaki  College,  55-57 
Canadians,  182,  255,  272,  288 
Cannes,  105 

Carey,  Miss  Miriam,  150 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  226,  250 
Carnegie  Corporation,  6 
Carnegie  Foundation,  362 
Cartwright,        Miss,       "Beatrice 

d'Este,"  182 
Cassel,  240 

Castle,  Agnes  and  Egerton,  70 
Caunter.  J.  A.  L.,  279-280 


INDEX 


381 


Central  Library  for  students,  Lon- 
don, 362 

Cervantes,  270,  272,  370 

Chambers,  R.  W.,  29 

Chamonix,  105 

Chapin,  Harold,  letters,  300-301 

Chapman,  Victor,  letters,  291-293 

Charles  XII,  life  of,  5 

ChMeau-Thierry,  100 

ChMillon-sur-Seine,  98 

Chelsea  Naval  Hospital,  160,  355 

Chicago  Daily  News,  165 

Chilston,  Lord,  179 

Churchill,  Winston,  "Traveller  in 
War  Time,"  78 

Civil  War,  American,  1-4,  146 

Clayden,  "Cloud  Studies,"  286 

demons.  Prof.  Harry,  73-80 

Close,  Percy  L.,  on  reading  for 
prisoners  of  war,  282 

Cobb,  Irvin,  "  Paths  of  Glory,"  43 

Coblenz,  96,  98 

Cohen,  Israel,  "The  Ruhleben 
Prison  Camp,"  234-235,  241-242 

Colored  troops,  80-85,  158,  317 

Comic  Cuts,  188 

Commission  on  Training  Camp 
Activities,  13,  123 

Community  house,  376 

Connor,  Ralph,  29,  266 

Conrad,  Joseph,  28,  289 

Continental  Times,  277,  278,  279, 
280,281 

Convalescence,  value  of  reading  in, 
193,  195,  248 

Conwell,  Russell  H.,  "  How  a  Sol- 
dier may  Succeed  after  the  War," 
3 

Cook,  "Life  of  Robert  E.  Lee," 
■      42 

Cook,  Captain,  "Voyages,"  5 

Cooke,  Marjorie  Benton,  155 

Copp^e,  Frangois,  345 

Corelli,  Marie,  79,  189,  204,  250, 
257 

Corneille,  70 

Cornhill  Magazine,  183,  253 

Courier  des  Etats  Unis,  37 

Cramb,  J.  A.,  290 

Crane,  Stephen,  "Red  Badge  of 
Courage,"  27 

Crawford,  F.  Marion,  155 


Cromwell's  Soldier's  Pocket  Bible, 

332-333 
Cuba,  133-134 
Cullum,  Ridgwell,  181 

Dante,  272,  291,  293,  296 
Darwin,  Charles,  109,  196;  "The 

Origin  of  Species,"  289 
Daudet,  Alphonse,  345 
Davies,  Sir  Alfred  T.,  organizer  of 

British  Prisoners  of  War  Book 

Scheme  (educational),  229,  233, 

236-237 
Davis,  Richard  Harding,  157 
Dawson,  Coningsby,  "Carry  on," 

19,26 
De  Foe,  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  111, 

365 
DeU,  Miss  Edith,  250 
Derby,  Lord,  216 
Destroyers,  135 

Detective  stories,  181,  250,  257,  259 
Detroit  Public  Library,  25 
Dickens,  Charles,  69, 141,  214,  226, 

248,  257,  261,  291 
Dispatch  offices,  A.L.A.,  93-94 
Doeberitz,  236,  240,  271 
"Dora  Thome,"  27 
Dorland  News  Agency,  65 
Douglas,  Arizona,  100 
Douglas,  Lieut.  J.  H.,  "  Captured," 

272-274 
Doyle,  A.  Conan,  29,  30,  78,  93, 

226,  244,  365 
Drinkwater,  John,  319 
Dumas,  Alexander,  29,  181,  184, 

261,  345 
Diisseldorf,  98 

Edge,  Governor,  65 

Edgeworth,  Maria,  2 

Educational  books  for  British  pris- 
oners of  war,  229-243 

Educational  opportunities  in  the 
camps,  40-60,  356-359 

Eliot,  George,  69,  141 

Ellison,  Wallace,  experiences  as  a 
prisoner  of  war,  269-272 

Ely,  Dinsmore, "  One  Who  Served," 
82 

Embossed  printing  for  blinded  sol- 
diers, 335-353 


382 


INDEX 


Emerson,  R.  W.,  139.  186,  226 
Empey,  A.  G.,  "First  Call,"  49; 
"Over  the  Top,"  36,  42,  72,  163 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  182 
English  language  classes,  53 
English  Review,  182 
Erskine,  Dr.  John,  358 
Euripides,  301 
Everybody's  Magazine,  38 
Everyman's  Library,  220,  259,  295 
Exner,  Dr.,  "Friend  or  Enemy,"  81 
Extension,  library,  375-377 

Fairbanks,  Douglas,  "Laugh  and 
Live,"  78,  79-80 

Farnsworth,  Henry  Weston,  letters, 
290-291 

Faustine  and  Wagner,  "New 
Reader  for  Evening  Schools,"  364 

Fawcett,  Henry,  345 

Fiction,  11,  26,  27,  29,  30,  134,  136, 
184,  247-248 

Field's  "English  for  New  Ameri- 
cans," 364 

Fisher,  H.  A.  L.,  letter  to,  on  books 
for  British  prisoners  of  war,  239 

Flanders,  letters  from,  293-295,  313 

Flecker,  James  Elroy,  319 

Florida  "squatters,"  54 

Foch,  Marshal,  325 

Forbes-Mitchell,  "Reminiscences 
of  the  Indian  Mutiny,"  295 

Foreign  Legion,  290-291 

Foreigners  in  American  Army,  363- 
371 

Fort  Des  Moines,  159,  168 

Fort  Leavenworth,  354 

Fort  Oglethorpe,  151 

Fort  Sam  Houston,  53,  364 

Fosdick,  Raymond  B.,  4,  20-21, 
40-41 

Fox,  John,  29 

France,  A.  L.A.  in,  86-107, 356-359 

France,  Y.M.C.A.  in,  356 

Frank  Leslie's  Weekly,  1 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  "Poor  Rich- 
ard's Almanac,"  43 

Eraser's  "Siberia,"  185 

Frederick  II,  life  of,  5 

Freeman,  Miss  Marilla  W.,  370-371 

French,  53 

French,  General,  228 


French  language,  57-60,  241,  273 
French  literature,  64,  70,  105,  209 
French  prisoners  of  war,  268,  273- 

274 
"From  Dug-out  and  Billet,"  314- 

315 
Froude,  J.  A.,  186 

Gallipoli,  211 

Galsworthy,  "Dark  Flower,"  63 

Games,  181 

Garnett,  Richard,  289 

Garrett,  Mrs.  T.  Harrison,  loan  of 

residence  for  use  of  blinded  sol- 
diers, 348 
Garvice,  Charles,  181,  259 
Gaskell,  Mrs.  H.  M.,  Hon.  Secre- 
tary, The  War  Library,  175, 177, 

179,182,188,189,190 
Gazette   des   Ardennes,   distributed 

among  prisoners  of  war,  277-878 
Georgia  "crackers,"  54 
Gerard,  James  W.,  assistance  to 

prisoners  of  war,  Ruhleben,  234 
German  books,  209 
German  guide  books,  32-33,  210 
Grerman     newspapers     in     {Hison 

camps,  276-279 
German  prisoners  of  war,  267-268 
(Jetty,   Miss  Alice,   work  for  the 

blind,  345-347 
Gibbon,  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the 

Roman  Empire,"  232,  295 
Gibeon,  282 
Gifts,    books,    15-17,    209,    254; 

buildings,  6 
Gillespie,  Lieut.,  A.  D.,  "Letters 

from  Flanders,"  293-295,  313 
GillUand,  H.  G.,  279 
Glenn,  Major-General,  on  the  value 

of  reading,  19 
Glyn,  Elinor,  79 
Goethe,  23,  24 
Gogol,  373 
Gordon,  General  Charles  George, 

71,272 
Gorky,  373 

Gosse,  Edmund,  179,  182 
Gould,  Nat,  popularity  of,  181, 184, 

189,  244,  246,  257,  258,  259 
Grandpr^,  115 
Gray's  "Anatomy,"  350 


INDEX 


383 


Grayson,  David,  "Adventures  in 
Contentment,"  44 

Great  Lakes  Naval  Training  Sta- 
tion, 6,  31 

Greek  books,  209,  365,  368,  369- 
370,  371 

Greek  history,  211 

Greek  literature,  298;  Plato,  23, 
241,  291,  313;  Testament,  43 

Green,  Henry  S.,  140 

Green,  John  Richard,  226 

Gregg,  "Shorthand,"  112 

Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  last  words, 
334-335 

Grey,  Zane,  29,  93,  126,  141,  148, 
355 

Guantanamo  Bay,  Cuba,  133 

Hadow,  Sir  Henry,  222 

Haggard.  H.  Rider,  29,  181,  257, 

258 
Haig,  Sir  Douglas,  on  the  value  of 

reading,  206-207 
Haldane,  Lord,  175 
Hall,  James  Norman,  308-313 
Hankey,  Donald,  321 
Harden,  Maximilian,  281 
Hardy,  Thomas,  28,  109,  287 
Harper's  Weekly,  1 
Harraden,  Miss  Beatrice,  253-463 
Haven,  Dr.  William  I.,  326 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  139,  141 
Hay,  Ian,  181,  183,  226 
Hayworth,   "George  Washington, 

Farmer,"  26 
Hazen,  C.  D.,  "Europe  since  1815," 

26,  43,  78;  "Modern  European 

History,"  32 
Heath,  Arthm-  George,  letters,  300 
Heine,  H., "  Florentine  Nights,"  289 
Helolse  and  Abelard,  109 
Henley,  W.  E.,  310,  316 
Henry,  O.,  29,  93,  148,  365 
Henry,  W.  E.,  14 
Heppeldorf,  191 
Herzl,  Theodore, "  A  Jewish  State," 

26 
Hewett,  Stephen  H.,  letters,  287 
Hewlett,  Maurice,  289 
Hind,  C.  Lewis,  "The  Soldier  Boy," 

307 
Hiscox's  "  Gas  Engines,"  355 


Holland,  Clive,  on  books  at  the 

front,  62 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  "The  Autocrat," 

292 
Holt,    Miss    Winifred,    work    for 

blinded  soldiers,  343-345 
Holy  Land,  26 
Holzmunden,  236 
Home  University  Library,  220 
Homer,  5,  186,  298 
Hood,  Thomas,  312 
Hope,  Anthony,  70,  257 
Hospital  libraries,  American,  144- 

174;  British,  244-263 
Howells,  W.  D.,  141 
Huard,  "  My  Home  in  the  Field  of 

Honor,"  43 
Hubbard,  Elbert,  "A  Message  to 

Garcia,"  28 
Hugo,  Victor,  70,  105,  232 
Hutchinson,    "Diseases  of    Chil- 
dren," 286 
Huntington,  Ellsworth,  "Palestine 

and  its  Transformation,"  26 
Hyne,  CutclifiFe,  181 

Ibsen,  42,  81 

Illiterates  in  camp,  52-55 
Illustrated  magazines,  218-219 
Illustrated  London  News,  189,  259, 

293 
Intelligence  Library,  Chaumont,  95 
International  relations,  71 
Irish,  368-369 
Irving,  Washington,  70 
Irwin,  Will,  visit  to  prison  camp, 

268 
Isom,  Miss  Mary  F.,  169 
Italians,  53,    153,    265,  354,  364, 

366,  367 

Jacobs,  W.  W.,  181,  226 
James,  Henry,  70,  141 
James,  William,  "Pragmatism,"  42 
Jerusalem,  26 

Jewish  Welfare  Board,  94,  95 
Jews,  26,  53,  148,  228,  329,  366 
John  Bull,  258 

Johnston,  Miss  Esther,  100-105 
Johnston,  Miss  Mary,  247 
Jones,  Prof.  Sir  Henry,  on  books  for 
prisoners  of  war,  265 


864 


INDEX 


Kant,  291 

Keats,  John,  227,  310 

Keller,  Helen,  351 

Kelly,  Ren6e,  204 

Khayydm,  Omar,  226,  316,  321 

Kingsley,  Charles,  69 

Kingsley,  Henry,  70 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  29,  71,  93,  139, 

164,  181,  188,  226,  246,  251,  252, 

269.  271,  313,  315,  317,  318,  343, 

365 
Kipling  scrap  books,  180-181 
Knights  of  Columbus,  13,  91,  95, 

106,  329 
Knoblock,  Miss,  183 
Kolnische  Zeitung,  read  by  prisoners 

of  war,  273 
Koran,  The,  189 

Ladies  Home  Journal,  38 

La  Fontaine,  5 

Lakewood,  N.J.,  157 

Lamartine,  109,  297 

Lamb,  Charles,  226,  291,  292 

Latzko,  "Men  in  War,"  351 

Lausanne,  274 

Le  Mans,  96,  100-105,  120,  121, 

173 
Le  Queux,  William,  181,  289 
Le  Sage,  5 

Letters  from  the  front,  287-303 
"Letters  of  a  Canadian  Stretcher- 
bearer,"  301 
"Letters  of  a  Soldier,"  296-299 
Libby  prison,  1 
Library  of  Congress,  7,  12 
Library  service  by  mail,  108-122 
Life,  291 
"Lighthouse,   The,"    (Le    Phare), 

for  the  blind,  343-344 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  146,  873 
Literary  Digest,  301 
Lithuanians,  53 
Lockwood,  J.   S.,   on  scarcity  of 

reading  matter  during  our  Civil 

War,  1 
London,  Jack,  29,  30, 141, 181, 187, 

247,  266 
London    chapter,    American    Red 

Cross,  67-69 
London  General  Hospital,  Second, 

245-246;  Third,  246-249 


London  Military  Hospital,  Endell 

St.,  253-263 
London  News,  Illustrated,  189,  259, 

293 
London  Ojrinion,  180,  189 
London,  St.  Dunstan's  Hostel,  337- 

343 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  139,  317 
Lumiere,  La,  343 

Macaulay.  T.  B.,  186, 189,  225,  257 
McCowen,  Oliver,  224 
McCutcheon,  G.  B.,  29,  30,  141 
Macdonald,  George,  187 
McGrath,  26 
Mackenzie,      "Diseases     of     the 

Heart,"  286 
McKenzie,  F.  A.,  on  the  Y.M.C.A., 

216 
Maeterlinck,  299 
Magazines  and  newspapers,  34-39, 

90,  107,  114,  135,  136,  138,  139, 

172,  208,  218-219,  230,  258,  301 
Mahabharata,  297 
Mahoney,    H.    C,    "Interned    in 

Germany,"  276-277 
Mail  service,  108-122 
Malcolm,    Ian,    "War    Pictures," 

277-278 
Malet,  Lucas,  70 
Manchester  Guardian,  186 
Maps,  33,  71,  182 
Marcosson,  Isaac  F.,  267-268 
Marienthal,  282 
Marne,  battle  of,  71 
Mars-sur-Allier,  171,  174 
Martin,  Mrs.  Helen  R.,  157-158 
Maryland  Bible  Society,  324-325 
Masefield,  John,  189,  249,  319 
Massachusetts  Bible  Society,  324- 

325 
Massachusetts  Free  Public  Library 

Commission,  364,  367-368 
Matsonia,  U.S.S.,  140-142 
Max\\'ell,  "Salesmanship,"  112 
Mayence,  98 
Melville,   Beresford,   aid  to  War 

Library,  175 
Meredith,  George,  28,  269 
Merriman.  H.  S.,  293-294 
Mesves,  169-171 
Metchnikoff," Nature  of  Man,"  289 


INDEX 


385 


Methodist  Monthly,  64 

Meyer,  H.  H.  B.,  138-139 

Military  books,  48-52 

Military  hospital  libraries,  144-174, 
244-263 

Millais's  "Bubbles,"  804 

Mills,  John  Saxon,  "Gathering  of 
the  Clans,"  287 

Milton,  John,  114,  291,  293,  309, 
310 

Milwaukee  Public  Library,  366 

Minkewitsch,  Dr.  Mary,  286 

Moli^re,  110,  297 

Mon(7oZia,  U.S.S.,  138 

Montesquieu,  5 

Morale,  kept  up  by  reading,  27 

Morale,  Henry  van  Dyke  on, 
ix-x 

Morals,  books  and,  80-85 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  "  Utopia,"  99 

Morley,  John,  "Life  of  Gladstone," 
272 

Moss,  "Army  Paper  Work,"  43; 
"Infantry  Drill  Regulations," 
49;  "Manual  of  Military  Train- 
ing," 43 

Murray,  Prof.  Gilbert,  238-239, 
264,  301 

Napoleon's  camp  library,  5;  "  Life 

of  Napoleon,"  105 
National  Geographic  Magazine,  38 
Naval  libraries,  123-137 
Naval    Training    Station,    Camp 

Perry,  Great  Lakes,  111 
Navy,  British,  175,  177 
Navy  Department,  U.S.,  147 
Neeser,  Robert  W.,  "Landsman's 

Log,"  127 
New  Republic,  The,  38 
New  York  Bible  Society,  325 
New  York  Public  Library,  15,  47 
Newbolt,  Henry,  249 
Newport  News,  Va.,  117, 124,  132 
Newspapers  and  magazines,  64-66, 

138,  161,  276-282 
Nice,  105 

Nicholson,  Meredith,  247 
Nick  Carter,  189,  250 
Nineteenth  Century,  258 
Nonsard,  114 
Northdiffe,  Lord,  61-62 


O'Brien,  "English  for  Foreign- 
ers," 366 

Oliver,  F.  S.,  "Ordeal  by  Battle," 
295 

OUivant,  "Bob,  Son  of  Battle,"  69 

Oppenheim,  E.  P.,  26,  29,  93,  187, 
259 

Osborn,  "Origin  and  Evolution  of 
Life,"  46 

Ossian,  5 

Ouida,  250 

Outlook,  64 

Overseas  Library,  198 

Overseas,  work,  61-122 

Oxenham,  John,  181 

•Oxford  Book  of  English  Verse," 
300,317 

Paley's  "Moral  Philosophy,"  16 

Palmer.  Frederick,  64 

Paris,  A.L.A.  headquarters,  92, 115 

Parker,  Sir  Gilbert,  70 

Parry,  Rear-Admiral,  265 

Patterson,  "With  the  Zionists  at 

Gallipoli,"  43 
Pearson,  Sir  Arthur,  founder  of  St. 

Dunstan's  Hostel,  337-342 
Pearson,    K.,     "Ethics    of    Free 

Thought,"  289 
"People's  Books,"  220 
People's  House,  371-372 
Pepys,  "Diary,"  189 
Periodicals  for  camp  libraries,  34- 

39;  for  prisoners  of  war,  230,  276- 

281 
Pershing,  Greneral  John  J.,  91,  108, 

356 
Phillips,  Stephen,  315 
Pictures  and  poetry,  304-320 
Plass's  "Civics  for  Americans  in 

the  Making,"  364 
Plato,  23,  241,  291,  313 
Plutarch,  5,  99,  291 
Pocket  Testament  League,  326 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  29,  139 
Poetry,  demand  for,  139,  148,  164, 

172  304-320 
Poles,' 23,  53,  366,  368,  374-375 
Polybius,  5 
Poole,  Ernest,  "The  Village,"  371- 

373 
Popular  authors,  29 


386 


INDEX 


Popular  Mechanics,  66 

Porter,  Gene  Stratton,  S88,  30,  64, 
187,  266 

Porter,  Jane,  69 

Post-OflBce,  American,  34-36,  377; 
Armv,  357 

Post-Office,  British,  200-205 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  272 

Prior,  "Operation  of  Trains,"  43 

Prisoners  of  war,  British,  214,  269- 
282;  French,  268,  273-274;  Rus- 
sian, 282-286 

Psalms,  The,  in  previous  wars,  332- 
333 

Publishers,  10,  177,  198 

Punch,  180 

Putnam,  Major  George  Haven,  on 
reading  in  Libby  prison,  1 

Putnam,  Dr.  Herbert,  General  Di- 
rector, A.L.A.  Library  War  Serv- 
ice, 7,  10,  20,  119,  179 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  333 
Raney,  M.  Llewellyn,  86-91 
Reade,  Charles,  69 
Reading  aloud,  157-158,  173,  211, 

274  329  < 

Reading,  value  of,  21, 164, 184-185 
Reconstruction  work,  359-363 
Red  Cross  (American),  14,  18,  66- 

69,  88-89,  93,  95,  120,  146,  147, 

151,  154,  167,  168,  171,  316,  329 
Red  Cross  (British),  178,  185,  189, 

192,  193,  205 
Reed,  John,  "Ten  Days  that  Shook 

the  World,"  373-374 
Reeducation   of    blinded    soldiers, 

336-338 
Regimental  libraries,  12 
Regional  libraries,  96 
Rembrandt,  307 

"Renaissance,  La,  des  Cit&,"  96 
Review  of  Reviews,  257,  258 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  299 
Rhys,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ernest,  217 
Rice,  Mrs.  Alice  Hegan,  152-154, 

247,  330-331 
Ridge,  W.  Pett,  experiences  as  a 

hospital  librarian,  247-250 
Riley,  James  Whitcomb,  317 
Roberts,     "English    for    Coming 

Americans,"  367 


Robins,    Elizabeth,    honorary    li- 
brarian. Military  Hospital,  En- 
dell  St.,  London,  253-254,  258 
Roosevelt,  Col.  Theodore,  65,  325, 

326,  328 
Roue,  La,  346 
Round  Table,  The,  189,  295 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  "Confessions,"  62 
Ruggeri,  "  Office  Practice,"  43 
Ruhleben  prison  camp  noted  for 
amount   of   reading   and   study 
done  there,  229,  233-236,  241- 
242 
Rural  delivery,  377 
Ruskin,  John,  16,  139,  186,  226 
Russell,  Bertrand,  109, 352 
Russia,  221,  266-267,  371-374 
Russian  Expeditionary  Force,  192 
Russian  books,  109,  148,  236,  265, 

367 
Russian  prisoners  in  Germany,  282- 

286 
Ruthenians,  53 

St.  Aignan,  96,  105 

St.  Dunstan's  Hostel,  337-343 

St.  Malo,  105 

St.  Mihiel,  104,  115 

St.  Nazaire,  96,  138,  141,  172 

Salisbury  Plain,  197,  199 

Saloniki,  211,  219,  221,  222,  223 

Salvation  Army,  91,  94,  95 

Samuel,  Herbert,  178 

Sand,  George,  70 

Saturday  Evening  Post,  35,  37,  63, 
66-67,  302 

SchiUer,  241 

Schlumberger,  "Si^  de  Con- 
stantinople," 235 

Scientific  American  Supplement,  38 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  69, 141, 188,  214, 
226,  248,  293 

Scrapnbooks  for  convalescents,  165, 
180-181 

Seaford,  Sussex,  Canadians  at,  56 

Seeger,  Alan,  62,  71 

Service,  Robert,  26, 71, 139, 140, 317 

Seymour,  "Diplomatic  Back- 
grounds," 32 

Shakespeare,  23,  30,  42,  47,  139, 
163,  181,  223,  226,  260,  291,  301, 
302,  311,  315,  317 


INDEX 


387 


Sharp,  William,  310 

Shellenberger,  Miss  Grace,  15&-160 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  310,  313 

Shell-shock,  reading  as  a  therapeu- 
tic aid  in,  14i4r-l4i5 

Siberia,  185,  192;  A.L.A.  in,  73-80 

Sick  and  wounded,  175-196 

Sketch,  The,  259,  301 

Sladen,  Douglas,  "In  Ruhleben," 
241 

Solace,  U.S.S.,  136 

"Soldier's  Pocket  Bible,"  333 

South  America,  24 

Spanish,  study  of,  267,  268,  347 

Spearing,  Miss  E.  M.,  "From  Cam- 
bridge to  Camiers,"  318-320 

Spectator,  183,  257 

Speek,  Dr.  P.  A.,  374-376 

Spencer,  A.  L.,  377 

Spencer,  Herbert,  "First  Princi- 
ples," 47;  "Sociology,"  42 

Sphere,  The,  257,  293,  295 

Sporting  Times,  205 

Stars  and  Stripes,  109,  111 

Stevedores,  in  France,  82-85 

Stevenson,  Burton  E.,  28-29,  92; 
European  representative  of  the 
A.L.A.,  109,  118,  119,  169 

Stevenson,  Mrs.  Burton  E.,  92,  93, 
108 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  30,  63,  70,  181, 
182,  226,  257,  260,  261,  320 

Stowe,  Mrs.  H.  B.,  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabm,"  153 

Strand  Magazine,  189,  257,  258 

Students,  Central  Library  for, 
London,  362 

Students  in  khaki,  40-60 

Studies  of  prisoners  of  war,  229- 
243 

Studying  French,  57-60,  241,  273 

Surrey  House,  London,  175-178, 
183 

Swinburne,  A.  C,  302 

Syrians,  37 

SystcTn,  109 

Szold,  Henrietta,  "Recent  Jewish 
Progress  in  Palestine,"  26 

Tacitus,  5 

Talbot,  Neville  S.,  "Thoughts  on 
Religion  at  the  Front,"  322 


Tarkington,  Booth,  29,  64,  99,  173, 
301 

Tatler,  The,  183,  257 
Tauchnitz  editions,  275,  282 
Technical    books,    133,    135,    166, 

261-262 
Temps,  Paris,  274 
Tennyson,  Sir  Alfred,  71,  139,  226, 

269 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  141,  214,  248 
Thomas,  Chaplain  J.  C,  general 

reading  agent  for  the  Army  of  the 

Cumberland,  3 
Thompson,      "Green      Mountain 

Boys,"  30 
Thompson,  Francis,  227,  310 
Thoreau,  H.  D.,  186 
Thucydides,  5 
Thurston,  Temple,  187 
Ticonderoga,  U.S.S.,  160-161 
Tilton,  E.  L.,  architect,  8 
Times,  London,  237,  274,  279 
Tim.es    (London),  "Broadsheets," 

290 
Times    (London),    smuggled   into 

prison  camps,  275,  280 
Times,  New  York,  274 
Tolstoi,  70,  257,  291,  294,  296,  298, 

300,  373 
Toul,  96,  112 
Tours,  96,  105 
Transport  service,  137-143 
Traveling  libraries,  11 
Trenches,  Bible  in  the,  321-334 
Trevelyan,     "Garibaldi    and    the 

Thousand,"  182 
Treves,  98 

Triangle  House,  216-217 
Twain,  Mark,  25,  29,  112,  189,  365 
Tweedy,  Lawrence  L.,  68 

Uneducated,  The,  52 

Undertaker's  Review,  15,  44 

U.S.  Army  School  Library,  Lan- 

gres,  96 
U.S.  Christian  Commission,  3 
U.S.     Commission     on     Training 

Camp  Activities,  13,  123 
United  States,  French  readers  in- 
terested in,  71 
U.S.  Navy  Department,  127 


888 


INDEX 


U.S.  Quartermaster's  Corps,  12 
U.S.  War  Department,  6,  7 
United     War     Work     Campaign 

(Nov.  1918),  7,  115,  124 
Universities    Committee,     British 

Y.M.C.A.,  221-222 
University,  A.E.F.,  358-359 
University,  "  khaki,"  55 
"University  of  Ruhleben,"  241 
Usher,  "The  Winning  of  the  War, " 

26 

Vachell,  H.  A.,  181 

"Vampire  of  the  Continent,"  the, 

17 
Valentin  HaUy  Association,  345 
Van  Dyke,  Henry,  ix-x 
Verne,  Jules,  249 
Vigny,  Alfred  de,  292 
Virgil,  5,  24 

Vladivostock,  73-74,  80 
Vocational  reading,  166-167,  182, 

234,  262 
Vocational  training,  336,  340,  344 
Voltaire,  5 
Vossische  Zeitung,  read  by  prisoners 

of  war,  242,  276 

Wallace,  Edgar,  181 

Walston,  Sir  Charles,  179 

Walton,  Sir  Isaac,  272 

Wandsworth,  Eng.,  Military  Hos- 
pital, 246 

War  books,  135 

War  Library  (British),  175-196, 
251-252 

Ward,  Col.  Sir  Edward,  and  the 
Camps  Library,  197-200 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry,  70,  80 

Warden,  Florence,  289 

Warren,  Sir  Herbert,  179 

Watts,  G.  F.,  308 

Wayland,  Prof.  Francis,  in  charge 


of  Connecticut  regimental  library 

diu-ing  our  Civil  War,  2 
Wells,  H.  G.,  28,  29,  71,  78,  99,  226, 

288 
Wesel,  269 
West  Indies,  38 
Western  stories,  103 
Weyman,  Stanley,  30 
Wheaton,  H.  H.,  363 
Wheeler's  "Book  of  Verse  of  the 

Great  War,"  26 
Whittier,  J.  G.,  139 
Wiener,  Leo,  "Interpretation  of  the 

Russian  People,"  78 
Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler,  315 
Williamsbridge  Hospital,  50,  147 
Wilson,  Dr.  Richard,  221 
Wilson,  Pres.  Woodrow,  admoni- 
tion to  men  of  army  and  navy, 

325,  327 
Wilstach's  "Mount  Vernon,"  26 
Wimborne  House,  London,  222 
Wister,  Owen,  "The  Virginian,"  64 
Witley,  England,  65 
Wordsworth,  Wm.,  189,  227,  314 
World  Almanac,  135 
Wright,  C.  T.  Hagberg,  176,  179, 

193,  282-284 
Wright,  Harold  Bell,  29 
Wyeth,  Miss  Ola  M.,  155 

Yeats,  W.  B.,  249,  302 

Yeaxlee,  B.  A.,  221 

Y.M.C.A.  (American),  13,  14,  22, 
40,  52,  65,  67,  70,  71,  73,  74,  88- 
92,  94-95, 106, 123, 125, 138, 141, 
146,  266,  267,  324,  329.  356,  363 

Y.M.C.A.  (British),  216-228,  304- 
306 

Y.W.C.A.,  94,  95 

Zionist  movement,  interest  in,  26 
Zukunft,  281 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   S   .  A 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


654  9635 


Ujj  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  784  776     7 


